OF ENGLISH PROSE, WITH EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUESTIONS: TO WHICH IS ADDED, AN ETYMOLOGICAL APPENDIX of Greek, latin, and For the Ase of Schools and Private Reading. BY EDWARD HUGHES, F.R.A.S., &c. HEAD MASTER OF THE ROYAL NAVAL LOWER SCHOOL, GREENWICH HOSPITAL; "If I were to pray for a taste which should stand me in stead under LONDON: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, & LONGMANS. DUBLIN: HODGES & SMITH, 1853. 270. c. 153. PREFACE. THE present work is intended to be a companion volume to the author's "Select Specimens of English Poetry." The selections are, in a great measure, from modern writers-such as have not been hitherto generally introduced into schoolbooks. The bulk of the work is prose, but a few congenial poetical pieces have been adopted with the view of giving variety to the readings. Most of the standard authors of our literature have been laid under contribution, and subjects have been brought forward about education and social progress, and at the same time, religious and moral questions have been discussed, that have not received from teachers so much notice as their intrinsic importance requires, and the circumstances of the present age demand. As far as educational subjects have been laid before the pupil, it will, perhaps, not be objected to, as the principle is now very generally admitted, that the young ought not so much to be forced to learn dogmatically, as induced to co-operate intelligently in their own education. As to social questions, again, it is now so much the custom for men, so young that in our fathers' days they would have been called PREFACE. THE present work is intended to be a companion volume to the author's "Select Specimens of English Poetry." The selections are, in a great measure, from modern writers—such as have not been hitherto generally introduced into schoolbooks. The bulk of the work is prose, but a few congenial poetical pieces have been adopted with the view of giving variety to the readings. Most of the standard authors of our literature have been laid under contribution, and subjects have been brought forward about education and social progress, and at the same time, religious and moral questions have been discussed, that have not received from teachers so much notice as their intrinsic importance requires, and the circumstances of the present age demand. As far as educational subjects have been laid before the pupil, it will, perhaps, not be objected to, as the principle is now very generally admitted, that the young ought not so much to be forced to learn dogmatically, as induced to co-operate intelligently in their own education. As to social questions, again, it is now so much the custom for men, so young that in our fathers' days they would have been called |