CHOICE SPECIMENS

OF

ENGLISH LITERATURE;

SELECTED FROM THE CHIEF ENGLISH WRITERS,

AND ARRANGED CHRONOLOGICALLY.

BY

THOMAS B. SHAW, A. M.,

AND

WILLIAM SMITH, LL. D.

SHELDON

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THE USE OF AMERICAN STUDENTS,

BY

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PREFACE

TO THE ENGLISH EDITION.

THE following extracts from the Chief English Writers were selected by the late Mr. Shaw to accompany his History of English Literature, and are divided into the same number of chapters, that they may be read with the biographical and critical account of each author. They present Specimens of all the chief English Writers from the earliest times to the present century. In making these Selections, two objects have been chiefly kept in view: first, the illustration of the style of each Writer by some of the most striking or characteristic specimens of his works; and, secondly, the choice of such passages as are suitable, either from their language or their matter, to be read in schools or committed to memory.

(3)

W. S.