Smith and
Wellesley, Boston University and the Annex at Cambridge, Michigan
University, Cornell, Bryn Mawr, and the rest, are all magnificent
attractions to the student. Yes, indeed! But how I wish that
English--English literature--was more earnestly pursued in every one of
them!
Within the limits of this talk, I can say but little on the study of
English; so I shall confine my suggestions to a few courses of reading,
which I hope may be helpful to some of you.
A knowledge of literature implies an actual acquaintance with the works
of authors; and no lists of names and dates, no anecdotes, nor literary
gossip, can take the place of this acquaintance: but, to make these
works more useful and intelligible, we should connect history with
them. How can I fully appreciate the oratory of the American Revolution,
if I know nothing of the war between England and the Colonies? How
can I get the real value out of "The Talisman," "Kenilworth," or
"Ivanhoe," if I have no knowledge of the Crusades, of Elizabeth's reign,
or of that period in English history when Richard of the Lion Heart was
king? Again, how can I understand why any age in English prose or poetry
was characterized by a peculiar kind of thinkers, if I do not know
the history and tendency of that age? Why, in one epoch, do we have
men writing on classical subjects in a way which represents form as
more important than matter? and why, in another age, are writers turning
from an artificial to a natural style?
Experience proves that it is profitless to study the formative periods
of English literature before trying to get acquainted with it in its
present condition.
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