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From 1579-1895.

A COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW, WITH COPIOUS EXTRACTS AND CRITICISMS

FOR THE USE OF SCHOOLS AND THE GENERAL READER

Containing an Appendix with a Full List of Southern

Authors

BY

LOUISE MANLY

ILLUSTRATED

RICHMOND, VA.

B. F. JOHNSON PUBLISHING COMPANY

CAFT OF

WALTER B. BRIGGS

Jan 5,1939

COPYRIGHT, 1895, BY

LOUISE MANLY.

PREFACE.

THE HE primary object of this book is to furnish our children with material for becoming acquainted with the development of American life and history as found in Southern writers and their works. It may serve as a reader supple. mentary to American history and literature, or it may be made the ground-work for serious study of Southern life and letters; and between these extremes there are varying degrees of usefulness.

To state its origin will best explain its existence. This may furthermore be of some help to teachers in using the book, though each teacher will use it as best suits his classes and methods.

The study of History is rising every day in importance. Sir Walter Raleigh in his "Historie of the World" well said, "It hath triumphed over time, which besides it nothing but eternity hath triumphed over." It is the still living word of the vanished ages.

The best way of teaching history has of late years received much attention. One excellent method is to read, in connection with the text-book, good works of fiction, dramas, poetry, and historical novels, bearing upon the different epochs, and also to read the works of the authors them

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selves of these different periods. We thus make history and literature illustrate and beautify each other. The dry dates become covered with living facts, the past is peopled with real beings instead of hard names, fiction receives a solid basis for its airy architecture, and the mind of the pupil is interested and broadened. Even the difficult subjects of politics and institutions gradually assume a more pleasing aspect by being associated with individual human interests, and condescend to simplify themselves through personal relations.

To illustrate this method, which I have used with great success in teaching English History:

In connection with the times of the early Britons, read Tennyson's "Idyls of the King."

At the Norman Conquest, Bulwer's "Harold."

At the reign of Richard I. (Coeur de Lion), Scott's "Ivanhoe" and "Talisman," Shakspere's "King John." At the reign of Elizabeth, Scott's "Kenilworth," the nonhistorical plays of Shakspere, as he lived at that epoch, Bacon's Essays, and others.

I mention merely a few. The amount of reading can be increased almost indefinitely and will depend on the time of the pupil, the plan of the teacher, and the accessibility of the books. Most of the books necessary for English History are now published in cheap form and are within reach of every pupil.

A great deal of reading is very desirable; it is the only way to give our pupils any broad view of literature and

history, and to cultivate a taste for reading in those desti. tute of it. It is often the only opportunity for reading which some pupils will ever have, and it lasts them a lifetime as a pleasure and a benefit.*

The reading may be done in the class or out of school hours. It is well to read as much as practicable in class, and to have some sketch of the outside reading given in class.

Geography must also go hand in hand with history, a point now well understood. But its importance can hardly be exaggerated and its practice is of the utmost value. One must use maps to study and read intelligently.

In American History pursue a similar course, as for example:

At the period of discovery and early settlement, read Irving's "Columbus," Simms' "Vasconselos" (De Soto's Expedition), and "Yemassee," John Smith's Life and Writings, Longfellow's "Hiawatha" and "Miles Standish," Kennedy's “Rob of the Bowl," Strachey's Works, Mrs. Preston's "Colonial Ballads," &c.

In Revolutionary times, the Revolutionary novels of Simms and Cooper, Kennedy's "Horse-Shoe Robinson;" the great statesmen of the day, as Jefferson, Adams, Patrick Henry, Hamilton, Washington; Cooke's "Fairfax" in which Washington appears as a youthful surveyor, and Virginia Comedians" in which Patrick Henry appears, Thackeray's "Virginians;" and others.

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* See Professor Woodrow Wilson's excellent article on the University study of Literature and Institutions, in the FORUM, September, 1894.

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