AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT TO PUBLISHERS AND AUTHORS NOTE. The student, teacher, and general reader are invited to read the literary critics mentioned below, from whose works selections have been made in the compilation of this handbook; they are also requested to remember the courtesy of the publishers who granted permission to the author to use these selections. Thomson, Daniel Greenleaf.... .The Philosophy of Fiction. THE CLARENDON PRESS, Oxford. Moulton, Richard Green..............Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist. HENRY HOLT & COMPANY, Boston. Perry, Thomas Sergeant... History of Greek Literature. ...... HARPER & BROTHERS, New York. English Men of Letters... .Series. BENJAMIN H. SANBORN & COMPANY, Boston. Mead, William Edward........Composition and Rhetoric. THE WERNER COMPANY, Akron, Ohio. The New Werner Twentieth Century Encyclopedia (Britannica). JOHN J. MCVEY & COMPANY, Philadelphia. Fénelon, Archbishop...... Three Dialogues on Eloquence. J. H. COATES & COMPANY, Philadelphia. PENN PUBLISHING COMPANY, Philadelphia. W. J. WIDDLETON & COMPANY, New York City. THE CENTURY COMPANY, New York City. A full list of the Authors quoted in this Handbook will be found among the Bibliographies at the close of the volume. See Appendices. OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA OF PART I CHAPTER I LITERATURE AS A FINE ART Literature as a Fine Art.-In the treatment of literature the proposition which seems to stand most in need of assertion at the present moment is, that literature is a fine art, and should be studied in connection with the other fine arts. For the same "first principles " which apply to painting, music, sculpture, architecture, apply with equal force to literature. Likewise, literature has its own form and content, and a medium far more subtle and complex than sound or color or stone. The Affinity of Literature to Other Fine Arts.-The relation that literary art sustains toward the other arts is aptly expressed by Cicero: Omnes artes quasi uno vinculo conjunguntur — all the arts are bound together as by a common bond. Hence, literary art must have some affinity with sculpture, painting, architecture; and this affinity is found in the underlying principles of all art. These principles, as expressed by the Greeks, are unity, harmony, balance, proportion. They form the common bond which binds all the arts together. The Source of These Principles. They are all found in nature, and they were appropriated by the human artist. "Art," says Aristotle, "is mimesis or imitation of nature." The things of nature are individualized, marked off as separate units; and, thus separated, they exhibit unity, harmony, |