The Channels of English Literature Edited by OLIPHANT SMEATON, M.A. ENGLISH EPIC AND HEROIC POETRY. By Professor W. MACNEILE DIXON, M.A., University of Glasgow. ENGLISH LYRIC POETRY. THE ENGLISH DRAMA. By Professor F. E. SCHELLING, D.Litt., ENGLISH PHILOSOPHERS AND SCHOOLS By Professor JAMES SETH, M.A., University of Edinburgh. THE ENGLISH ESSAY AND ESSAYISTS. By Professor HUGH WALKER, LL.D., St. David's College, Lampeter. THE ENGLISH NOVEL. By Professor GEORGE SAINTSBURY, LL.D., ENGLISH BIOGRAPHY. By Professor WALDO H. DUNN, LL.D. ENGLISH SATIRE AND SATIRISTS. It is hoped that in most respects this volume on The English Essay and Essayists will sufficiently explain itself without the aid of a preface. But there is one point with regard to which a word of explanation may perhaps be necessary. There is in English a great mass of literary criticism, of which much the greater part is in the form of essays. If these critical essays had been here treated in accordance with their intrinsic importance, they would have filled much more space than has been given to them. But in The Channels of English Literature there is a separate volume assigned to criticism. In the present volume, therefore, my purpose has been to touch upon the subject as lightly as the nature of my own task permitted. I could not entirely ignore it; for sometimes criticism has aided in the development of the essay, and sometimes reference to an essayist's critical work has been necessary to round off a general estimate of him. It is clear, for example, that Matthew Arnold could not be ignored in a book professing to discuss the English Essayists; and it is equally clear that to speak of him as an essayist without reference to his criticism would be absurd. No attempt, however, has been made to discuss his critical principles in full. This, then, is the explanation if I seem to have said too little. about the critics. If I have said too much, it is from failure to strike the just mean between full discussion and total silence. HUGH WALKER. |