Excerpt from An Anthology of English Poetry for Schools It seems to the editor a matter of the first importance for the successful teaching of literature that the instructor should himself have a clear conception of the purpose of literature and of the means by which this purpose is attained. There is often a vague ness and misdirection of energy in class-work, because the teacher, while himself, it may be, a lover and competent judge of books, has never clearly apprehended what literature has actually done for himself, and how its results have been attained. In the introduc tions to various volumes of poetical selections, which the writer published in recent years (the Study of Literature, 1898, Thought and Form of Poetry, 1897, Metre in Relation to Thought, he has addressed himself to this task, and in the Introduction to the present volume he attempts the consideration of another and some what more abstract phase of the same problem. The Introduction, therefore, is not designed directly for the use of the pupils, for whom the selections themselves are intended. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.