An Introduction to the Study of English Literature and Literary Criticism; Designed for the Use of Schools, Seminaries, Colleges, and Universities

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1883 edition. Excerpt: ...Comic IVriter.s. Tha.ekeray's English Humorists of the Eighteenth Century. Whipple's Literature and Life. Minto's Manual of English Prose Literature. Tuckerman's Essays. IVit and Wisdom of Sydney Smith (1861). See, also, other reference-lists for names of authors mentioned in this chapter. AN essay, strictly speaking, is an attempt to elucidate, within certain limits, the most important facts and thoughts concerning a chosen subject, and to place these thoughts, in an attractive shape and a clear light, before the reader. The limits of an essay, as to both time and treatment, are such that it is not usually either comprehensive or exhaustive. It is a view merely of certain phases of the subject as seen from the peculiar standpoint of the author and through the glasses which he holds before our eyes. The subject itself may be of any kind Whatever, and the style of thought and treatment depends chiefly upon the mood of the writer. The object of the essay, although apparently didactic, is to please no less than to instruct; and the most perfect examples of this class of writing possess all the beauty and worth of true works of art. The essay as a distinct species of prose composition is of modern origin; we may date its beginning in the latter half of the sixteenth century. Michel de Montaigne, a Frenchman, may be called the first essayist; he not only invented this kind of writing, but he popularized it, and supplied a host of followers and imitators with valuable suggestions and models. His E'ssays have exerted a marked influence upon the manner and style of thought of more than one English writer. The principal subject of Montaigne's Essa;/s--the central thought around which all other thoughts, influences, ...