BOOK V.




INTRODUCTION.


Throughout this book, and the next, you will find passages taken from
the writings of the best English authors. But the passages are not all
equal, nor are they all such as we would call "the best," and the more
you read and are able to judge them for yourselves, the better you will
be able to see what is the difference between the best and those that
are not so good.

By the best authors are meant those who have written most skilfully
in prose and verse. Some of these have written in prose, because they
wished to tell us something more fully and freely than they could do if
they tied themselves to lines of an equal number of syllables, or ending
with the same sound, as men do when they write poetry. Others have
written in verse, because they wished rather to make us think over
and over again about the same thing, and, by doing so, to teach
us, gradually, how much we could learn from one thing; if we think
sufficiently long and carefully about it; and, besides this, they knew
that rhythmical or musical language would keep longest in our memory
anything which they wished to remain there; and by being stored up in