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INTRODUCTION

ΤΟ

ENGLISH LITERATURE,

From Chaucer to Tennyson.

BY

HENRY REED,

LATE PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC AND ENGLISH LITERATURE IN PENNSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY

LONDON:

JOHN F. SHAW, PATERNOSTER ROW,

AND SOUTHAMPTON ROW

1857.
270. c. 280.

ADVERTISEMENT.

Is giving to the public an edition of these Lectures, it is proper to state, that no abridgment of any portion of the Author's remarks has beea made, but the extracts cited from English authors, which are sometimes given at length in the American edition, are in the case of some authors here abridged, in recognition of their rights, and from the general publicity of their writings not requiring such full citations.

It is hoped that this volume may assist in the choice of books for recreation and study, and introduce many readers of it to the companionship of authors to whom they were before strangers.

MEMOIR.

HENRY REED was born in Philadelphia on the 11th of July, 1808. His early education was at the classical school, of high repute in its day, of Mr. James Ross.

Mr. Reed entered the Sophomore class at the University of Pennsylvania in September, 1822, and was graduated as Bachelor of Arts in 1825. He began the study of the law, under the general guidance of Mr. Sergeant, then at the height of his professional fame, and was admitted to practice in the District Court of the City and County of Philadelphia in 1829.

In September, 1831, he relinquished the practice of his profession, and was elected Assistant Professor of English Literature in the University. In November of the same year, he was chosen Assistant Professor of Moral Philosophy. In the service of the college he continued for twenty-three years, faithful to his duties, however irksome; and never in all that period, until his visit to Europe, absent for any length of time from his post, except when compelled by sickness. In 1835, he was elected Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature.

Mr. Read was married, in 1834, to Elizabeth White Bronson, who, with three children, now survives him.

It had long been his wish to visit Europe, but his professional duties and other claims had always prevented it. In the spring of 1854, the Professorship of Moral Philosophy being vacant, Mr. Reed became a candidate for the chair, but was not elected. Although no personal disparagement was intended, so earnest and so reasonable was his ambition for what he considered a high academical distinction, that his disappointment was most keen and depressing. His secluded mode of life, exempt from the world's rough competitions; his modest wishes; his consciousness of services rendered and duties performed; his natural pride in the affec tion of his students; and, above all, his conviction that moral science, in its highest and holiest sense, as elevated by religious truth, was a depart ment of education which he was peculiarly competent to take charge of, combined to render the disappointment very poignant. His friends and family never saw him more depressed. He asked for leave of absence, which was granted by the trustees, and early in May, 1854, accompanied by his sister-in-law, Miss Bronson, he sailed for Europe.

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