This work is based on the fact that almost forty centuries of history and literature are open to every reader, and easily accessible to him who reads in the right direction; that a scientific habit of thought demands the perception of literature as an entirety or as a growth. It is based further on the fact that the history of nations," their real or soul history, has found truest expression in their songs and stories, and that it is an economy of the student's energy for him to read with reference to the development of the world's thought and to get its history, in the main, through its literature. To continually place desultory reading before the student is unpsychological. It tends to destroy his memory and to weaken. his ability to reason and thus give him no power of selfdirection.

To teach literature in such a manner that the student shall form the logical habit of thought, that his information may be enlarged, his literary or esthetic sense

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quickened-these are the tests of a great teacher of literature. To do this the teacher must know when to drop literature as a fine art, and teach briefly what is called "history;" when to drop history and teach geography; when to drop all of these and teach "English," in other words, composition.

The most practical plan seems to be to present the geography first by means of maps, photographs and other pictures.

Second, to let the student read a whole piece of literature that he may realize it in its entirety, and discuss it as a work of art with regard to its meaning as a whole, and its literary quality or esthetic value.

Third, to re-read such parts of it as require further consideration either as to construction or meaning.

Fourth, to let the student make his own history from the subject-matter as May Sheldon Barnes teaches in her Greek and Roman history, "doing away with the middle men by going to the original sources," as she says.

Fifth, to occasionally draw a chart on the blackboard in order to show the chronological place of the literature under consideration, and its relation to what preceded and what followed it.

Sixth, to require from the student a written review of the study-such a review as one looks for in the literary notes of a good magazine. The advantages to the student of learning "English" or composition in this way are great. He is not obliged to draw on a barren imagination for ideas, but can form an independent judgment as to the value of the work. In no case should the student be urged to believe, either in the subject

matter, or in the aesthetic quality of the literature presented. He should be left to draw his own conclusions.

It has been customary to build fences between various literatures and different epochs, saying, "This is Greek," "This is Roman," "This is English." It is important that the student should feel that " Age calleth unto age," the Greek shades into the Roman, the Roman into the German, and all into English. To rear a partition between epoch and epoch is as destructive of logical sense as the thumping of a baton on a table is destructive of the onward sweeping, the intense quality in music.

It has been customary also to divide subject-matter into chapters of certain length, or into lessons and paragraphs. It is the intention of this work to do away with such divisions except where they come naturally and are convenient. Such interruptions retard thought, and a teacher of intelligence does not require "helps" of that kind. There is no attempt in the book to question the intelligence of teachers under the guise of helping them.

Side-notes have been placed along the margins that the student may readily refer to any thought to which he may wish to return, and these may be used also as topics in discussion. Other topics are placed at the end of the volume that the subjects treated may be discussed as wholes rather than by steps.

The plan of The World's Literature will be readily found in the chart on page 5.

This volume deals with two epochs-the great prehistoric epochs, the Myth-making and the Homeric

Ages and the years following, up to the first Olympiad. As a study of the Myth-making Age I have chosen to present some of the theories by great modern writers rather than a dictionary of mythology. This should be read in class and made the subject of reflection rather than memorized and recited. These authors also should receive some consideration. In dealing with the Iliad

and Odyssey, I have selected those parts which present the most typical characters.

To preserve the students' interest in literature, the teacher should run up and down the scale of history, selecting here and there such incidents or short pieces of literature as shall strengthen the points in the lesson. Or he may occasionally select a piece of literature to study, first as a work of art and afterward to show its base in some earlier work, or else that it has no such relation but stands as an independent growth, a revelation of new geographic or historic conditions.

M. E. B.