SPECIAL INTRODUCTION
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riters never weary themselves in sounding the praiseof reading, though their readers sometimes weary of theiteration. And truly there is a flat monotone in this sol-emn preaching of the duty of persistence in « courses i ofbook-study. Even the lighter literature is mechanically« systematized i in blocks of periods, authors, schools, andso on, the latest specialist subdividing the divisions of hisimmediate predecessor. This is much like an attempt to substitute spade hus-bandry for steam cultivation. Its wisdom and utility de-pend upon the acreage to be tilled and the ambition of itsowner. Hard work in specific studies is necessary to fit aman for his calling. Then comes pleasure-reading in lei-sure hours. It may be that some have g^own so used toharness that their very recreation must be by rigid rule.For such the delights of roaming at large over the openchampaign of breezy literature have no temptation. Maythey find happiness in cultivating their carefully fenced back-yards. The wanderer through the wilderness of noble writingswill enhance his pleasure by occasionally following in thetrack of the centuries. A certain orderliness brings out thebest qualities of every sort of banquet, while yet the appe-tite is piqued by the variety and abundance of the viands.The literature of one period takes flavor from that whichpreceded it and gives a richer gusto to the style that follows.Haphazard reading fails to yield this extra charm, just asmechanical study blunts the subtler perceptions. The golden mean for the lover of all the good fellows whoglorified our literature by honest work in all the styles of allthe centuries is to sip their sweets as the bee sucks, now themeadow clover, and now the garden flowers, in happy free- (vii) ▼ui ENGLISH BELLES-LETTRES dom, yet with practical intent to make the most of them, bycontrast and roving as the sun goes. The field of Englishpleasure-reading is old and vast and richly variegated. OurcuUings make a nosegay grateful to the pleasure-sense andsatisfying to the mind. The thousandth anniversary of great King Alfred, whoestablished his nation on the rock of its people's enlightenedpatriotism, has brought his splendid character into publicview. He was the first strong Englishman to foresee themore than kingly puissance of the song and written book.He used scholars as a higher type of fighting men, himselfthe lifelong active head and inspirer of the navy, the army,and the singers and writers whose joint labors made theunity and greatness of his country. His sympathetic para-phrase of the reflections of Boethius fitly heads the processionof these too little known good men and brave writers of old-time England. If the new acquaintances Roger Ascham will make by thisintroduction of him do not find him one of the raciest, witti-est, and shrewdest good fellows they ever met in books,some other reason for the failure must be found than hisquaint Elizabethan English, with its amusing and enviabledefiance of pedantic diction-tinkers. Gascoigne's sturdy plain speech may amaze some mis-guided souls who have lived in the delusion that rasping,satirical criticism of high-placed wrongdoers is a product oflatter-day progressive intellectuality. The gentler spirit ofPhilip Sidney and Selden's homely wisdom make a pleasingchange of theme and style. The acceptance of the crema-tion usage gives this generation a closer interest in the ma-jestic phrases of Sir Thomas Browne's seventeenth centuryprose-poem on urn burial. A dip into the mordant humorof John Arbuthnot, friend of Swift and Pope, and enviedfor his wit by both, followed by a pondering of Lord Boling-broke's cogent philosophical Letter, will enlarge our ap-preciation of the varied and profound qualities in the lessfamiliar writers of their time. Poor Chatterton's impracticable temperament and pitifulending shed a sombre twilight glamour upon the output ofhis undoubted genius. And Coleridge, no more self -man- SPECIAL INTRODUCTION te ageable despite a long life of hard discipline, affords thereader the opportunity partly to realize some of the disheart-ening hindrances that have crushed to earth rare souls,whose truant or feeble guardian angels failed to ballast themwith the coarser fibres that too often enable talent to passitself off as genius. So this widely gathered handful of fragrant wild-flowersand choice blooms may serve to quicken the taste for moreof the same growths ; and if it shall send the reader on vaguerambling quests over the hills and dales where the fairiesdwelly he will at least have a bracing air and healthy exer-cise for his pains, and the likelihood of finding companion-ships that will give a new zest to life. CONTENTS pjyQB
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