In the meantime you can get a general idea of the development of English literature and the place of the chief writers. A good method is to read selections from English prose and poetry grouped in historical sequence. The volumes of prose edited by Henry Craik and Ward’s “English Poets” afford an adequate survey of British literature. Carpenter’s “American Prose” and Stedman’s “American Anthology” constitute an excellent introduction to the branch of English literature produced on this side of the water. The volumes of selections may be accompanied by the historical handbooks already mentioned, which deal with literary periods, or by one of the histories which cover all the centuries of English authors, such as Saintsbury’s “Short History,” or Stopford Brooke’s “English Literature.” The student should guard against spending too large a portion of his time reading about literature instead of reading the literature itself. But a systematic review of the history of a national literature has great value, apart from the enjoyment of literature; it is, if nothing more, a course in history and biography. I have found that the study of a handbook of a foreign literature in which I could not hope to read extensively was in effect a study of the development of the foreign nation. I never read a better history of Rome than J. W. Mackail’s “Latin Literature.” The student who can read French will receive pleasure and profit from Petit de Julleville’s “Littérature Française” or from the shorter “Petit Histoire” of M. Delphine Duval.