MACAULAY'S ESSAYS ON ADDISON EDITED WITH NOTES BY HERBERT AUGUSTINE SMITH, PH.D. STANDARD ENGLISH CLASSICS BOSTON, U.S.A. GINN & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS The Athenæum Press 1904 PREFACE In the preparation of this little volume the editor has had in mind the needs of two different classes of students, intending it both for school and for college use. In consequence, the notes are not quite what they would have been had they been made for either class alone. Some of them will seem to a college Freshman or Sophomore unnecessarily elementary; while the school teacher may find the allusions to contemporary history and literature unneces sarily full, and implying a knowledge somewhat beyond that of his pupils. Nevertheless, the editor trusts that its usefulness has in neither case been impaired. It does not take much experience with a college class to discover the possibilities of ignorance there; it is unsafe to assume a general knowledge of anything not required by the entrance examination, and no seed of information can be too elementary to drop somewhere into virgin soil. On the other hand, every school contains a considerable percentage of boys who are, in general information and wider reading, far ahead of their fellows. It does no harm to provide for the needs of these boys; and the skillful teacher will find the utilization in th class-room of their knowledge an efficient aid to the instruction of their less intelligent companions. The vital question in preparing a work of this kind is, of course, how to make the study both instructive and stimulating. Some of our friends are telling us that we are in |
