BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
The Riverside Press Cambridge
COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
All selections in this book are used by special permission of, and
arrangement with, the owners of the copyrights.
The Riverside Press
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
U.S.A
Transcribers Note: Minor typos have been corrected.
It is pleasant to note, among teachers of literature in the high school,a growing (or perhaps one should say an established) conviction that thepupil's enjoyment of what he reads ought to be the chief considerationin the work. From such enjoyment, it is conceded, come the knowledge andthe power that are the end of study. All profitable literature work inthe secondary grades must be based upon the unforced attention andactivity of the student.
An inevitable phase of this liberal attitude is a readiness to promotethe study of modern authors. It is now the generally accepted view thatmany pieces of recent literature are more suitable for young people'sreading than the old and conventionally approved classics. This is notto say that the really readable classics should be discarded, since theyhave their own place and their own value. Yet it is everywhere admittedthat modern literature should be given its opportunity to appeal to highschool students, and that at some stage in their course it shouldreceive its due share of recognition. The mere fact that modern writersare, in point of material and style, less remote than the classicauthors from the immediate interests of the students is sufficient torecommend them. Then, too, since young people are, in the nature ofthings, constantly brought into contact with some form of modernliterature, they need to be provided with a standard of criticism andchoice.
[Pg iv]The present volume is an attempt to assemble, in a convenient manner, anumber of selections from recent literature, such as high schoolstudents of average taste and ability may understand and enjoy. Theseselections are not all equally difficult. Some need to be read rapidlyfor their intrinsic interest; others deserve more analysis of form andcontent; still others demand careful intensive study. This diversity ofmethod is almost a necessity in a full year's course in reading, inwhich rigidity and monotony ought above all things to be avoided.
Although convinced that the larger part of the reading work in the highschool years should be devoted to the study of prose, the editor hashere included what she believes to be a just proportion of poetry. Thepoems have been chosen with a view to the fact that they are varied inform and sentiment; and that they exhibit in no small degree thetendencies of modern poetic thought, with its love of nature and itshumanitarian impulses.
An attempt has been made to present examples of the most usual andreadable forms of prose composition—narration, the account of travel,the personal essay, and serious exposition. The authors of theseselections possess without exception that distinction of style whichentitles them to a high rank in literature and makes them inspiringmodels for the unskilled writer.
A word may be said as to the intention of the study helps and lists ofreadi