PREFACE. It is said that the Romans were the first people who set up milestones along their roads into the country, for the benefit of the wayfaring man. The wealthy travellers could take guides, when they wanted them, to save themselves labour and trouble, on their excursions; and the professed tourist had skill and science enough to find his way by the great guides of nature, the rivers and mountainsthe sun, moon, and stars--and the landmarks set up by his precursors;-but the business man required these speaking stones directly in his way, to guide him on his journey. So, in the paths of knowledge, those who have leisure, and are not under the necessity of measuring time by hours, or distances by time, can course along at will, and find amusement and instruction in every thing they look upon; and the professed scholar knows the tracks of his predecessors in the walks of literature, and can examine all the monuments they have established without fear or anxiety, for he can easily correct his errors, if he should fall into any. But those engaged in the busy scenes of life, and to whom literature is incidental, suffer for want of a few directions in getting the most information from the best sources in the shortest possible time. They are thankful for being directed to the most splendid epochs of human knowledge, and fairly introduced to some of the best authors of any age of intelligence. If there be no royal road to geometry, there is a short cut to a respectable share of knowledge, both ancient and modern. The few remarks found in this volume are, in furtherance of my purpose, made historical, biographical, and critical, with a view to furnish an outline in the miscellaneous reading of the English scholar. These remarks, with what success the reader will best judge, are intended to point out some of the most valuable authors, whose works he may safely peruse, and some of those passages in the progress of human knowledge with which it is necessary to be familiar, in order to give one a reputable standing in this enlightened community. The time has come when no one can be ignorant, and still respectable. A good share of knowledge is requisite for the daily demands of society, in almost every grade of life. The work-shop, the counting-room, the factory, and even the dancing-hall, as the world goes, must have a portion of modern intelligence, to be respectable. If the few mile-stones I have set up are rough-hewn, and the directions rudely sculptured, the figures are honest, and the directions safe; they pretend not to point out THE WAY TO BYZANTIUM, but only to the next village. My arrangement is, in a good degree, historical, in reference to particular eras of literature, rather than to general chronology; but the course I should venture to recommend for the general English reader, would be, to make himself well acquainted with the writers of Queen Anne's reign, as Young, Addison, Swift, Pope, Parnell, Akenside, Chesterfield, and many others, are called; and from them go up to the earliest ages I have mentioned, and come down to the present day, enlarging the circle of reading until it embraces the best portions of English literature. I begin at this point to form the sweep of the compass of knowledge, for it was an age of taste and pure English. There are some things in this work I have touched upon before. When I wrote my lectures on American Literature, I had not contemplated this work; and if I had, I must have given some slight account of English literature, in order to come properly to our own. When I first thought, last winter, of touching upon this wide field of English literature, I engaged my friend, James Nack, -a young gentleman known to the community for his virtues, his talents, his acquirements, and his misfortunes, (being deaf and dumb,)-to assist me in the undertaking. On that plan,-if we could have carried it into execution, our labours would have extended to several volumes; but on consulting those wise in publications, they discouraged the enterprise, and I confined myself to this small volume, giving up all thoughts of going farther; and this was well, for it would have been taking him from the groves of the muses to drudge in the details of literature, and me from professional labours, if not so pleasant, certainly quite as profitable. It has long been my opinion, that we were greatly deficient in works which might be called directors of youth in the paths of knowledge. I mean those paths which should be pursued, after the elementary course of education has been completed. I agree that the mind should not be in leading strings long, but it should always be under the direction of sound principles and forcible aphorisms. In the course of life there should be no step taken without advice, and no day passed without its duties. NEW-YORK, January, 1832. SAMUEL L. KNAPP. CHAPTER I. "None, But such as are good men, can give good things; We are a reading community: the press is every day teeming with works of all sorts, in our mother tongue, of more or less value in forming the mind.It is not now difficult to procure books; they are scattered abroad through every city, town, and village in our extensive country, in great profusion; but it often happens, that the youthful mind is without a guide in this wilderness of sweets, for it falls to the lot of but a few to have a Mentor always at hand to point out the medicinal from the poisonous flower. The first rudiments of knowledge can hardly be called learning; they only fit the mind to receive it; nor do they contain any directions for keeping the intellect sound and healthy. There is no instinct in our natures that directs ús to whatever is good and wholesome, as in the honey bee or other humble creatures of earth or air. If youths would not wander without knowing whither, and waste their time in useless reading, they must, in some measure, seek out and trust to those guides who have experience in the pathway of knowledge-those who have tasted and tried the qualities of all that makes up the literary banquet which is set before them. This is not all; the necessary quantity of that which is nutritious and desirable should be known, for the most proper and natural food may be taken so unadvisedly as to cause a surfeit. It is fortunate, however, that elementary education among us is so well conducted as it is. There are a few books dedicated to the household gods, which lie near the cradle and are opened and partially read without direction or calculation. The Bible is among these, and the historical sketches and dramatic incidents in that volume, attract and fix the attention of children at a very early age. This is well, for the language of the Bible is pure, good English, and easily understood. And even some of the poetical descriptions are eagerly read, and although the images left on the mind are indistinct and visionary, still the mental struggle, to grasp them awakens the powers of the imagination, opens the reasoning faculties, and prepares the child to read and reflect on those subjects which are presented to him in a different form, with a wish for improvement. From a benevolent zeal to improve the rising generation, all classes of men of intellect have labored to provide juvenile books; and sometimes, perhaps, these well-meant endeavors push the mind onward with too much rapidity, and in this pressure of acquisition, the storing the memory may be considered by some the same thing as cultivating the mind; but it is not precisely the same. The other books about the house are in general well calculated to improve his memory, taste and judgment; so that when the child is given up to the school master some foundation for his future inclinations and pursuits is laid. He is then confined to elementary knowledge, and all the exertions of the instructor to throw a charm around geography, arithmetic, history and philosophy, amount to but little in the way of making the acquisition of knowledge palatable. The strong stimulant of distine tion is at this period the most efficacious. Those who are about to prepare themselves for an active life are obliged to leave school when only half their teens are gone; without restraint or direction, even with the best of habits, their acquisitions in general knowledge are of slow growth. They read merely for amusement, without a thought of treasuring a stock of information for future use. They dislike to be plodding when they can recreate themselves by slight and careless reading. The scope of my remarks, I wish it to be understood, is to induce the youth to correct this desultory habit, and to set out right, and continue so, until the mind of the man is formed. By method in reading, it is astonishing how much can be effected in the course of a few years. The intellectual distinction among men on the exchange, and in all the business walks of life, is more owing to the different ways in which young men pass their leisure hours from fifteen to thirty than to any other cause. By a rigid course of disciplining the mind in these important years, early defects may be cured, and even a common-place mind strengthened to show no ordinary powers, while a course of ten years' negligence in reading will enfeeble an intellect which was once thought vigorous and promising. The same remarks are applicable to young ladies; if they throw aside their useful books as soon as they are taken from school, and ramble through the light reading of the day, forming no plans for improving their minds, they will never come to maturity; there will be an infancy about them even in old age, while an hour or two in a day will keep them bright, increase |
