MacMillans Reading Books - Book V | Page 2

know more.
The editor has to return his thanks for the kindness by which certain extracts have been placed at his disposal by the following authors and publishers:--Mr. Ruskin and Mr. William Allingham; Mr. Nimmo (for extract from Hugh Miller's works); Mr. Nelson (for poems by Mr. and Mrs. Howitt); Messrs. Edmonston and Douglas (for extract from Dasent's "Tales from the Norse"); Messrs. Chapman and Hall (for extracts from the works of Charles Dickens and Mr. Carlyle); Messrs. Longmans, Green, and Co. (for extracts from the works of Macaulay and Mr. Froude); Messrs. Routledge and Co. (for extracts from Miss Martineau's works); Mr. Murray (for extracts from the works of Dean Stanley); and many others.

BOOK V.
CONTENTS.
Prose.
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
INCIDENT IN THE LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON Warner's Tour in the Northern Counties.
THE OLD PHILOSOPHER AND THE YOUNG LADY Jane Taylor
BARBARA S---- Charles Lamb
DR. ARNOLD Tom Brown's School Days
BOYHOOD'S WORK [ditto]
WORK IN THE WORLD [ditto]
CASTLES IN THE AIR Addison
THE DEATH OF NELSON Southey
LEARNING TO RIDE T. Hughes
MOSES AT THE FAIR Goldsmith
WHANG THE MILLER [ditto]
AN ESCAPE Defoe's Robinson Crusoe
NECESSITY THE MOTHER OF INVENTION [ditto]
LABRADOR Southey's Omniana
GROWTH OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY Robertson
A WHALE HUNT Scott
A SHIPWRECK Charles Kingsley
THE BLACK PRINCE Dean Stanley
THE ASSEMBLY OF URI E.A. Freeman
MY WINTER GARDEN Charles Kingsley
ASPECTS OF NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN COUNTRIES John Ruskin
COLUMBUS IN SIGHT OF LAND Washington Irving
COLUMBUS SHIPWRECKED [ditto]
ROBBED IN THE DESERT Mungo Park
ARISTIDES Plutarch's Lives
THE VENERABLE BEDE J.R. Green
THE DEATH OF ANSELM Dean Church
THE MURDER OF BECKET Dean Stanley
THE DEATH OF ELIZABETH J.R. Green
THE BATTLE OF NASEBY Defoe
THE PILGRIMS AND GIANT DESPAIR Bunyan
A HARD WINTER Rev. Gilbert White
A PORTENTOUS SUMMER [ditto]
A THUNDERSTORM [ditto]
CHARACTER OF SIR WALTER SCOTT J. Lockhart
MUMPS'S HALL Scott
THE PORTEOUS MOB [ditto]
THE PORTEOUS MOB (continued) [ditto]
JOSIAH WEDGWOOD Speech by Mr. Gladstone
THE CRIMEAN WAR Speech by Mr. Disraeli
NATIONAL MORALITY Speech by Mr. Bright
THE PLEASURES OF A LIFE OF LABOUR Hugh Miller
THE FLIGHT OF BIRDS Rev. Gilbert White
THE BATTLE OF CORUNNA Napier
BATTLE OF ALBUERA Napier
CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE AT BALAKLAVA The "Times" Correspondent
AFRICAN HOSPITALITY Mungo Park
ACROSS THE DESERT OF NUBIA Bruce's Travels
A SHIPWRECK ON THE ARABIAN COAST W.G. Palgrave
AN ARABIAN TOWN W.G. Palgrave
THE QUEST OF THE HOLY GRAIL Sir Thomas Malory
VISIT TO SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY'S COUNTRY SEAT Addison
THE DEAD ASS Sterne
Poetry.
THE VILLAGE BLACKSMITH H.W. Longfellow
MEN OF ENGLAND Campbell
A BALLAD Goldsmith
MARTYRS Cowper
A PSALM OF LIFE H.W. Longfellow
THE ANT AND THE CATERPILLAR Cunningham
REPORT OF AN ADJUDGED CASE Couper
THE INCHCAPE BELL Southey
BATTLE OF THE BALME Campbell
LOCHINVAR Scott
THE CHAMELEON Merrick
A WISH Pope
A SEA SONG Cunningham
ON THE LOSS OF THE 'ROYAL GEORGE' Cowper
RULE BRITANNIA Thomson
WATERLOO Byron
IVRY Macaulay
ANCIENT GREECE Byron
THE TEMPLE OF FAME Pope
A HAPPY LIFE Sir Henry Wotton
MAN'S SERVANTS George Herbert
VIRTUE George Herbert
DEATH THE CONQUEROR James Shirley
THE PASSIONS Collins
THE VISION OF BELSHAZZAR Byron
YE MARINERS OF ENGLAND Campbell
A SHIPWRECK Byron
THE HAPPY WARRIOR Wordsworth
LIBERTY Cowper
THE TROSACHS Scott
LOCHIEL'S WARNING Campbell
REST FROM BATTLE Pope
THE SAXON AND THE GAEL Scott
THE SAXON AND THE GAEL (continued) Scott
THE WINTER EVENING Cowper
MAZEPPA Byron
HYMN TO DIANA Ben Jonson
L'ALLEGRO Milton
THE VILLAGE Goldsmith
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE Shakespeare
IL PENSEROSO Milton
COURTESY Spenser
NOTES

BOOK V.

INTRODUCTION.
Throughout this book, and the next, you will find passages taken from the writings of the best English authors. But the passages are not all equal, nor are they all such as we would call "the best," and the more you read and are able to judge them for yourselves, the better you will be able to see what is the difference between the best and those that are not so good.
By the best authors are meant those who have written most skilfully in prose and verse. Some of these have written in prose, because they wished to tell us something more fully and freely than they could do if they tied themselves to lines of an equal number of syllables, or ending with the same sound, as men do when they write poetry. Others have written in verse, because they wished rather to make us think over and over again about the same thing, and, by doing so, to teach us, gradually, how much we could learn from one thing; if we think sufficiently long and carefully about it; and, besides this, they knew that rhythmical or musical language would keep longest in our memory anything which they wished to remain there; and by being stored up in our mind, would enrich us in all our lives after.
In these books you will find pieces taken from authors both in prose and verse. But of the authors who have made themselves famous by the books which they have written in our language, many had to be set aside. Because many writers, though their books are famous, have written so long ago, that the language which they use, though it is really the same language as our own, is yet so old-fashioned that it is not readily understood. By and by, when you are older, you may read these books, and find