it is to be hoped, with increased wisdom. It is hardly necessary to add
that our subject has still its unvoiced charms, that it cannot be exhausted
or even adequately presented in any number of histories. For literature
deals with life; and life, with its endlessly surprising variety in unity,
has happily some suggestion of infinity.

WILLIAM J. LONG

STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT




CONTENTS


ENGLISH LITERATURE


CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION: AN ESSAY OF LITERATURE

What is Literature? The Tree and the Book. Books of Knowledge and Books of
Power. The Art of Literature. A Definition and Some Objections.


CHAPTER II. BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

Tributaries of Early Literature. The Anglo-Saxon or Old-English Period.
Specimens of the Language. The Epic of Beowulf. Anglo-Saxon Songs. Types of
Earliest Poetry. Christian Literature of the Anglo-Saxon Period. The