An Anthology of English Prose [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION The wide field of English Prose, despite cheap reprints, is as yet an untilled domain to many readers. In the hurry of modern life there is time but to snatch at the productions of contemporaries, or to know from a hasty review of the existence of such and such a " volume of forgottén lore." It is the object of this anthology to help to give the modern reader somé conception of the way in which the prose that he devours so eagerly has grown up, and somé desire to turn up the soil of this vast domain and discover treasures for himself. The trend of English prose, always more elusive than that of poetry, and its gradual development from infancy to gigantic growth, afford a voyage of adventure for him who seeks. The temper of the English mind, the growth of its national sensibility, have found an idealized expression in the pages of poetry, but in the realms of prose have been reflected in all their many moods and changes with kaleidoscopic vigour and detail. It was characteristic of English prose during its earliest period that it should have little universal interest; until the eighteenth century it was the instrument for the individual expression of enthusiasm for a particular religious belief, or a favourite line of thought. What there was of generál interest to mankind came into England in the form of translations-most influential of all, the Authorized Version of the Bible in 1611. The writers of English prose ploughed small and isolated plots, while poetry early swept over its head and rained benefits upon rich and poor, learned and lewd. Yet the national energy from earliest times has found its expression, fleeting though that was at first, in prose, as well as in poetry; and as the Saxon element absorbed the Norman and all other influxes of alien growth, so English prose has enriched itself from many foreign sources and yet remains thoroughly English. Perfection of form in prose was attained much later than perfection of form in poetry. Prose rhythm found no natural response in English ears, and it is a far cry from the rough but vigorous diction of the Anglo-Saxon chronicle to the organ notes v