PRINCIPLES AND METHOD

IN THE STUDY OF

ENGLISH LITERATURE

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE,

C. F. CLAY, MANAGER.
London: FETTER LANE, E.C.
Edinburgh: 100, PRINCES STREET.

Leipzig: F. A. BROCKHAUS.

Berlin: A. ASHER AND CO.

New York: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS.
Bombay and Calcutta : MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD.

[All Rights reserved]

IN THE STUDY OF

ENGLISH LITERATURE

by

WILLIAM MACPHERSON, M.A.
English Master in the County Secondary School and

Pupil-Teachers' Centre, Beckenham, Kent

CAMBRIDGE:
at the University Press

1908

Cambridge

PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A.

AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

TH
NHESE chapters are written primarily from a

a teacher's point of view. I have here attempted to state the logical and psychological principles that underlie the study of English Literature, and to illustrate methods of teaching that follow naturally from them. The essay is written with special reference to the mental growth and requirements of pupils in secondary schools; but in so far as the methods indicated are logically based upon the fundamental nature of the subject-matter taught, they are capable of being applied, in their essence, to the teaching of English Literature at all stages : I therefore venture to hope that the essay may be of interest to teachers of every grade. No attempt has been made to deal with the study of English as a whole: principles and method are described in their application only to the reading of authors. From an immediately practical standpoint, my chief aim has been to show how English Literature, as it appears in the works of our best writers, may be effectively studied and rightly appreciated. This is a theme of wide interest; and

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