English Readings for Students. English masterpieces in editions at once competently edited and inexpensive, designed to fill vacancies now existing because of subject, treatment, or price. ARNOLD (MATTHEW): PROSE SELECTIONS. Selected and edited by Lewis E. Gates, Instructor in Harvard. + pp. 16mo. Cloth, Boards, BURKE SELECTIONS. Selected and edited by Bliss Perry, Professor in Princeton. + pp. 16mo. Boards, DE QUINCEY: JOAN OF ARC AND THE ENGLISH MAIL COACH. Edited by James Morgan Hart, Professor in Cornell. xxvi+138 pp. 16mo. Boards, 30c. DRYDEN: AURUNG ZEBE. A Play. Edited by Jas. W. Bright, Ass't Professor in Johns Hopkins. pp. 16mo. Cloth + Boards, COLERIDGE: PROSE EXTRACTS. Selected and edited by Henry A. Beers, Professor in Yale. xxix + 148 pp. 16mo. Boards, 30c. FORD: THE BROKEN HEART. A Spartan Tragedy in Verse. Edited by Clinton Scollard, Professor in Hamilton College. xvi 132 pp. 16mo. Cloth, 70c. Boards, 40c. GOLDSMITH: PRESENT STATE OF POLITE LEARNING. Edited by J. M. Hart, Professor in Cornell. About 100 pp. 16mo. Boards, LYLY: ENDIMION. A Play. Edited by Geo. P. Baker, Instructor in Harvard. cxcvi + 109 pp. 16mo. Cloth, $1.25. Boards, 85c. MACAULAY'S AND CARLYLE'S ESSAYS ON SAMUEL JOHNSON. Edited by Wm. Strunk, Jr., Instructor in Cornell. With portrait of Johnson on his tour of the Hebrides. xl+ 192 pp. Boards, 40c. JOHNSON: HISTORY OF RASSELAS. Edited by Oliver Farrar Emerson, Professor in Cornell. Ivi 179 Pp. 16mo. Cloth, 70c. Boards, 40c. MARLOWE: EDWARD II. With the best passages from Tamburlaine the ARGUMENTATION: SPECIMENS OF CLASSIC. Edited by Geo. P. Baker, Instructor in Harvard. ARGUMENTATION: SPECIMENS OF MODERN. Speeches by Chatham, Mansfield, Huxley, Erskine, and Beecher, and the first letter of Junius. Edited by Geo. P. Baker. 186 pp. 16mo. Boards, 50c. DESCRIPTION: SPECIMENS OF PROSE. Edited by Charles Sears Baldwin, Instructor in Yale. After the short illustrative extracts in the Introduction the selections are of fair length and continuous interest, and from the best modern writers. 1+149 pp. 16mo. Boards, 50c. EXPOSITION: SPECIMENS OF. Twelve Selections on widely different subjects from Huxley, Bryce, Burke, Adam Smith, The "Nation," Wm. Archer, etc. Edited by Hammond Lamont, Instructor in Harvard. vi 180 pp. 16mo. Boards, 50c. NARRATION: SPECIMENS OF. Edited by Wm. P. Brewster, Instructor in Columbia. + pp. 16mo. Boards, Postage, ten per cent. additional. HENRY HOLT & CO., NEW YORK. OF PROSE DESCRIPTION COMPILED AND EDITED BY CHARLES SEARS BALDWIN, PH. D. NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY BY EXCHANGE June 5, 1939 COPYRIGHT, 1895, BY HENRY HOLT & CO. THE MERSHON COMPANY PRESS, RAHWAY, N. J. PREFACE. THESE Specimens of Prose Description, though intended primarily for college classes, will be found available in the higher classes of schools. For not only is description, in its simpler forms, the kind of writing most proper to elementary work in composition, but even the theory of description, and its application in more finished art, may be very stimulating without being at all confusing. In fact, it is difficult to conduct a course in description adequately without leading up to the few fundamental principles enunciated here. And where the elaboration of these principles may seem beyond the grasp of the younger student, it is hoped that they will still be convenient for the teacher. To avoid the ugliness of a catalogue of fragments, the shorter extracts have been grouped within the introduction. Of course these are quite as important as the longer pieces, and are equally recognized in the index. Moreover, they serve, not only to give point to the enunciation of principle, but also to obviate the necessity of scattered comment on the longer pieces. Instead of such detailed annotation, it seemed better to present in one place, as compactly as possible, the whole theory of description; to fortify this theory by |