ALNCASTER, To: a Wayside Tragedy, . 350 | In the Dales Sixty Years Since, 590, 653 276, 530 Polruan Ferry-boat, The 155, 212 Scratched Out, Story, The, of a Duel, 473 BORN. BORN this morning! and last night, Born this morning! Yesterday, Foundered, with her four stout hands. And among those hands he drowned, Born this morning! Little one, Life has bitterly begun. Scant the welcome thou canst find, Sing his lullaby, O sea! Nurse and playmate thou must be. Give the orphan for his dower All The Year Round. BACILLUS OUR BANE. O BOGIE-LIKE baleful Bacillus, Untouched by our potions and pills, You enter to conquer and kill us, The taint that brings terrible ills. You lurk in the air and the water, The presage of peril and pain, You stride on serene to our slaughter, Bacillus our bane. You must have existed for ages, But ne'er in the past you appear In mystical medical pages; When suddenly, lo! you are here. Though climates be Arctic or Tropic, You come with disease in your train; Seen surely on slide microscopic, Bacillus our bane. "De minimis non curat lex" is A motto we've all heard before; No medical man can ignore. Though some folks deny your existence, Bacillus our bane. She would take my face in her tender hands When childish tears were quick to flow; She would smooth my face with her tender hands If she felt the grief within me. If only my lover knew Of the surging, passionate sorrow, He would hold me close to his sturdy breast, But leaned for love on each other's heart; But it pierces me like a knife To think that they do not know it; To think they can look in my pleading eyes, CURTIS MAY. From The Fortnightly Review. THE STUDY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. understanding, and fortifies and trains the judgment. AN eminent English scholar has con- Such an outline map of European hisfessed that he knows no geography save tory the young student has ready to his of those countries over which he has him- hand in Mr. Freeman's "General Sketch." self travelled. And there is, in fact, no It owns no charm of picturesque beauty, method of learning geography to compare or dramatic presentment, or philosophical with that of tramping across hill and plain | reflection; but it is what it professes to with a knapsack on the shoulders. But be a clue to a labyrinth. The general to know a country aright, one must know relations of different periods and different it in relation to other lands, and the pedes- countries to one another are traced trian traveller might well begin his geo- though a vast tract of time, extending graphical studies by inspecting a map of from the early history of the Aryan nathe globe, and by mastering, not indeed tions to the union of Germany in our own the details, but the broader outlines of days; and this is achieved within the that map. limits of some three or four hundred pages. It would be possible by brute force to hammer the contents of this little book into a boy's head in the course of a few weeks or months, and brute force could hardly be better employed. The young student of history would ever after be able to place things aright, and to understand how this thing is related to that. He might by-and-by proceed to fill in one fragment of the great map with topographical details, nor rest until he had become intimate with every feature of his chosen province. In like manner no one can be said to know, in the true sense of the word, any portion of history until he has made close acquaintance with it in the original sources and authorities. Service of high value may be rendered to him by the modern historian; but the modern historian is at best a trustworthy guide describing the country; to know the country aright the traveller must breathe its air, live amongst its inhabitants, become familiar, if possible, with its every height and hollow. The historical student, if he be a true student, must address himself to the mastering of contemporary texts. "To the law and to the testimony, to the charter and to the chronicle, to the abiding records of each succeeding age, writ on the parchment or graven on the stone it is to these that he must go himself and must guide others." * But in order to conceive aright his special field of study, the student should have in his mind a broad outline map of the whole course of history, a map not crowded with petty names, but clearly setting forth the facts of prime importance. Having once possessed himself of such an outline map, he will ever after be able to place things aright, and to understand in some degree their true relations. And so he can enter on the close study of his particular province, to win from it by patient observation, research, reflection, that rich knowledge of concrete realities which nourishes the Mr. Freeman, speaking of the duties of the professor of history, Methods of Historical Study, pp. 16, 17. Had I my way in the teaching of English literature I would have the student start with a general sketch of European literature somewhat resembling Mr. Freeman's "General Sketch of European History" in its aim and scope and manner of treatment. Unfortunately no such book (as far as I am aware) exists, nor does one know where to turn in search of a writer competent to trace such an outline. If Hallam's "Introduction to the Literature of Europe," admirable as it is for its learning and good sense, were recast, revised, amended, and reduced from four large volumes to a single volume of three hundred pages, we should possess something which might at least serve as a stopgap until a better book were ready to take its place. But a large book reduced in scale is never quite the same as a small book written with a different purpose; it is not easy merely by omission or condensation to obtain breadth and simplicity of outline. Such a general sketch of European lit |