The detailed study of selections from the most important English and American authors, is a large task for one year’s work, but experience has shown that much can be accomplished toward widening the pupils’ knowledge and appreciation of literature by a course of this kind. After two years of intensive study of the elements of expression, the average pupil will be able to comprehend more readily what he reads, and less time will have to be spent on the details. The selections studied may also be regarded from a somewhat different point of view from that taken during the first two years. The piece of literature may be considered in relation to the author’s personality and the age in which it was written, as well as in comparison with other literature that has been read by the pupils. In the history of English literature characteristic selections from most of the following authors should be studied in class: Chaucer, Shakespeare, Bacon, Milton, Pope, Addison, Goldsmith, Gray, Burns, Scott, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Shelley, Tennyson, Browning, Lamb, George Eliot, Dickens, and Thackeray. In the survey of American literature the same general method should be followed. As the pupils have generally read considerable of the poetry of Longfellow, Whittier, Bryant, and Holmes, as well as selections from the prose of Irving, Hawthorne, and Thoreau, a brief review of these will be sufficient. The class work should therefore consist largely of the reading and study of works of authors not previously read in class, such as the poems and short stories of Poe, essays of Emerson, Lowell, and Holmes, and novels of Hawthorne and Cooper. 2. Composition During the third year about one-fifth of the time, or one period a week, should be devoted to English composition. One short theme a week, and one long composition once in six weeks will furnish the necessary practice in writing. While the narrative and descriptive work of the first two years may be continued, more emphasis should be placed upon expository composition, in continuation of the study of exposition begun in the second semester of the second year. Besides explaining the various processes and simple mechanical devices with which he is familiar, the pupil may be encouraged to express his own opinions in regard to what he reads in literature. If the conditions are favorable, the kind of elementary argumentation suggested for the second year, may also be used in theme work. VIII FOURTH YEAR ENGLISH 1. Reading