Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. The series of which this is the initial volume was planned more than six years ago, and three years have passed since the plan was approved by the publishers but its execution has been delayed by work upon other books. My aim is to edit certain selections from standard prose and poetry suited either for supplementary read ing, as it is called, or for elementary study in English literature. The brief foot-notes under the text are perhaps all that some teach ers will regard as necessary for the former purpose; but I believe that the longer notes at the end of the book will be found more or less useful and suggestive for oral instruction in connection with the reading-lessons. These latter notes, however, are more especially designed for the other purpose I have mentioned - elementary study of language and literature. They have been prepared with much care, and I am confident that they will be perfectly intelligible to boys and girls in grammar schools and others of similar grade. I shall not attempt here to explain how I think they should be used, as the little pamphlet of Hints to Teachers, which may be oh tained, post-free, on application to the publishers, will give my views more in detail than would be possible in a preface. Suffice it to say now, to forestall possible criticism, that these notes are not designed to give systematic instruction in either grammar or rhetoric.

The series of which this is the initial volume was planned more than six years ago, and three years have passed since the plan was approved by the publishers but its execution has been delayed by work upon other books. My aim is to edit certain selections from standard prose and poetry suited either for supplementary read ing, as it is called, or for elementary study in English literature. The brief foot-notes under the text are perhaps all that some teach ers will regard as necessary for the former purpose; but I believe that the longer notes at the end of the book will be found more or less useful and suggestive for oral instruction in connection with the reading-lessons. These latter notes, however, are more especially designed for the other purpose I have mentioned — elementary study of language and literature. They have been prepared with much care, and I am confident that they will be perfectly intelligible to boys and girls in grammar schools and others of similar grade. I shall not attempt here to explain how I think they should be used, as the little pamphlet of Hints to Teachers, which may be oh tained, post-free, on application to the publishers, will give my views more in detail than would be possible in a preface. Suffice it to say now, to forestall possible criticism, that these notes are not designed to give systematic instruction in either grammar or rhetoric.