PREFACE THE American School Literary Reader is the crowning book of this unusual series. It is planned especially to meet the needs of the older pupils in rural schools, of eighth and ninth grade classes in graded schools, and of students undertaking the serious study of literature in the first year of the high school. It is intended also for use, not merely as the highest book of the American School Readers Series, but as an independent textbook and source book for the study of English literature by young people. Its aim is to introduce the pupils using it to an appreciative and friendly acquaintance with a large number of the greatest authors of the language through selections adapted to the comprehension and the taste of boys and girls. The literature presented is not difficult to read. It is, on the contrary, easy of comprehension. It has a high ethical quality, tending to cultivate a love for the right and a love for country. The scope of selection is very wide, including most of the leading American authors, and also a goodly array of the best English writers, as well as the Bible. In its selection of themes this book is most catholic, and in this respect is unique among the books of literature available for young people. The four great divisions of literature are all well represented; there V |