INTRODUCTION CONTENTS. PAGE 1 THE PERIOD OF PREPARATION, cir. 670 — cir. 1400. Schools, in England during the 6th, 7th, and 8th centuries. . 627 629 Map of English Lake Country 632 ENGLISH LITERATURE. INTRODUCTION. ENGLISH literature is the expression in memorable poetry and prose of the life and character of the English people. In English history we see the character of the people revealed through action. The English people establish a great nation: the English English literature and English history. nation founds a great colonial empire. The English extend their language to the ends of the earth: they build up one of the noblest and richest literatures known to history. How have they been able to produce this literature? Not because they were naturally fond of talking, like the Gauls; not because they had any peculiar talent for making verses, or any especial turn for saying graceful or pretty things. English literature, like English history, is memorable and inspiring because it is the genuine expression of a great race. When a brave, earnest man, who has felt, and seen, and done much, tells you his innermost thoughts, he is worth listening to; and when a nation like the English speaks to us out of its heart through its books, its books are worth reading. For more than fourteen hundred years, generation after generation of Englishmen has tried to put something of its life into words. At first the attempts were crude and imperfect; the nation struggled to speak through the rough song of some heroic deed or the brief chronicle of historical events; but as time went on, the soul of the people found a readier and fuller utterance in ballad and drama, and epic and novel, in books on religion, or history, or philosophy. So that at last in that long 1 |