Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from English Literature
As for the aesthetic appreciation of literature, in distinction from colder analysis, the author is firmly of the opinion that, how ever difficult the former may be to teach, it is the main end of ele mentary literary study. He who aims at scholarship will take a different view; but for the average student, the chief office of literature is to enrich the leisure of his life. A text-book based on such a conception need not assume to be rigorously critical; it does not set before itself the object of enabling students to sit in absolutely dispassionate judgment upon the works they are invited to enjoy. The author is therefore prepared to hear with equanimity the charge that he has sometimes been guilty of over-praise. At the same time he trusts that no panegyric has been lightly evoked or mistakenly bestowed, - that even his superlatives, when consideration is taken of the qualifications that attend them and allowance made for honest differences of opinion, will be found to have been not thoughtlessly employed. To be appreciative without becoming uncritical, and above all without losing grasp of substance, has been the constant aim. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
