Page:The Sources of Standard English.djvu/506

Rh This new volume, closing with the Treaty of Arras, is the history of the ''struggles of Plantagenet and Valois. It refers, accordingly, to one of the'' most stirring epochs in the mediæval era, including the battle of Poictiers, the great Schism of the West, the Lollards, Agincourt and Joan of Arc. The authoress reminds her readers that she aims merely at “collecting from the best authorities such details as may present scenes and personages to the eye in some fulness;” her are a “collection of historical scenes and portraits such as the young might find it difficult to form for themselves without access to a very complete library.” “Though mainly intended,” says the, “for young readers, they will, if we mistake not, be found very acceptable to those of more mature years, and the life and reality imparted to the dry bones of history cannot fail to be attractive to readers of every age.”

When young children have acquired the outlines of History from abridge&shy;ments and catechisms, and it becomes desirable to give a more enlarged view of the subject, in order to render it really useful and interesting, a ''difficulty often arises as to the choice of books. Two courses are open, either'' to take a general and consequently dry history of facts, such as Russel's Modern Europe, or to choose some work treating of a particular period or ''subject, such as the works of Macaulay and Froude. The former course'' usually renders history uninteresting; the latter is unsatisfactory because ''it is not sufficiently comprehensive. To remedy this difficulty, Selections,'' continuous and chronological, have, in the present volume, been taken from the larger works of Freeman, Milman, Palgrave, and others, which may ''serve as distinct landmarks of historical reading. “We know of scarcely'' anything,” says the of this volume, “which is so likely to raise to a higher level the average standard of English education.”