Page:The Story of the House of Cassell (book).djvu/198

 career as a medical man, but turned schoolmaster when the dishonesty of a partner had brought him to the brink of financial disaster. Some contributions of his to Household Words attracted the notice of Charles Dickens, who induced him to come to London, and for some years he was engaged upon the staff of that paper, and then upon All the Year Round. In 1865 he was appointed Professor of English Language and Literature at University College, and in 1882 Principal of University Hall. Between these two dates, in 1873, the House published his "First Sketch," a compendium which, several times revised by its author, and since his death by other hands, has always been, and still is, a favourite with students. Cassel's were not slow to see that Prof. Morley could do them good service, and arrangements were made with him to edit "The Library of English Literature," which was issued serially in 1878-81, and ran to five volumes. It consisted of specimen extracts from English prose and poetry, with brief comments.

In 1886 Morley entered upon a still more considerable undertaking, that of editing a series of reprints in threepenny volumes under the title of "Cassell's National Library." It is not the fact, as is stated in the "Dictionary of National Biography," that Morley "induced" the House to embark upon this enterprise. The scheme originated with the late Sir W. Laird Clowes, at that time editor of the Saturday Journal, having been suggested to him by a cheap series of German reprints, and it was welcomed enthusiastically by John Hamer and other managers. The commission was offered to Morley by telegram, and it turned out that if the House had relied upon the post it might have been anticipated by another firm. The series ran to 214 volumes, issued weekly, and each containing an Introduction from the pen of the editor. Although these Introductions had often to be written in haste, they were admirable as enabling the reader to make the necessary mental adjustment, and many of them were perfect. Taken together, they testify