The Students' Series of English Classics. MILTON'S PARADISE LOST BOOKS I AND II EDITED WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY ALBERT S. COOK, PROFESSOR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE PREFACE. THE purpose of this edition is to promote the enjoyment of Milton's poetry through study of a selection which, by its excellence of every sort, will reward prolonged attention. Through study, not through mere reading; for the editor does not share the opinion of those who hold that the study of the best literature is fatal to enjoyment. All men,' says Aristotle judge and we shall hardly find a more competent 'all men by nature desire to know.' If the appe tite for knowledge is inborn in every human being, study, which is the process of acquiring knowledge, can only be distasteful when it has artificially been rendered so. There are those who concede this in general, who yet make an exception of literature; but it is difficult to see why the highest form of expression of which the human soul is capable should less repay study by enjoyment than the grass of the field or the rocks of the mine. On this point I am glad to find myself in substantial accord with that veteran and universally respected teacher of English, Professor March, of Lafayette College. He believes, as I also do, in the more rapid reading of certain books, especially during the elementary stages of an English course, according to a method that he suggests in The Independent for August 4, 1892. says, among other things: The teacher may have select passages read in class, read them or have them read with care He and expression, to bring out their thought and feeling. A pupil who is a good reader will often stimulate a whole class wonderfully. Comment and criticism should be used mainly for pointing out beauties and exciting admiration; passages may be committed to memory. In this way fondness for reading and for good books may be induced.' All this is well, and most teachers would agree with him. But he does not stop here, and proceeds to urge an advance beyond such admirable beginnings. He would have great literature more deeply understood than is possible through such processes as have been sketched above. • We must learn,' he says, 'to speak and write English; then we must study it in the seats of its power, in the great English authors. Early rapid reading gives us words without definition. We get the denotation of names of common material objects and acts somewhere near right, but without knowing their meaning, their connotation. Abstract terms and names of complex conceptions and idioms float vaguely through the mind. There is no more delightful discipline than that of clearing up these vague notions, defining them and nailing them down with their words, so as to make the scholar confident master of his thought. This is the preparation for all progress in advanced thinking or for original writing. It is because students of Latin and Greek are more thoroughly trained in this discipline than others that they so often show superior command of thought and style to others.' Again, he advocates the study of English words in English literature, just as the Greeks acquired their Greek by the study of Greek. Demosthenes studied Thucydides. Johnson tells the student of English style to spend his days and nights upon Addison. Franklin formed his admirable style in that way, reading good passages in the Spectator, then after a time writing out the thoughts as well as he could, and comparing his work with Addison's, word by word, and studying all. John Bright formed his powerful oratory by English studies. Thousands of lesser lights have trimmed their lamps, such as Nature has furnished them, in the same fashion.' 6 He does not even shrink from employing the terms 'grammar' and 'philology,' though it is clear that he does not believe that all teaching of grammar and philology is promotive of literary enjoyment, since he speaks of a highest kind of philological study,' and distinguishes this from lower kinds by noting that its fruit is love for the thing studied: 'It is a matter of course that thorough grammatical and philological study should be given to such a work if one finds it congenial. "The Scripture cannot be understood theologically," says Melanchthon, "unless it be first understood grammatically." Men of one book, men who give much of their time to chewing and digesting some favorite volumes, have always been marked men. Genius broods ever. Luther called Galatians his wife. What apparatus of grammars, dictionaries, concordances, cyclopædias, have those who love the Bible made for the study of it, what commentaries of every kind, what longcontinued studies of supreme passages! What mastery of Bible English is obtained by this study, and what love of it! And this is a type of the highest kind of philological study. In this way Homer has been made near and dear to thousands, and Socrates, and Dante, and Shakespeare. There must be a great character behind the words of great literature. Then for profound and worthy admiration we must have profound study long continued and often repeated. Philological study used as a means of clearing up, enriching, and impressing our apprehension of the thought and style, makes the student rejoice in them and remember them forever. The English |