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of many to its interest and beauty. English literature, from about Dryden's time on, falls into two main branches,—that produced in Great Britain and that produced in the United States. In the Introduction I have shown why I believe that the prose literature produced here during this long period, whatever may be said of the poetry, is one of the most interesting in the world, and may appropriately be placed, not indeed first or second, but probably third, and certainly not lower than fourth, among modern prose literatures. But whatever be its value to humanity at large, it is ours; and surely no American can read sympathetically the body of literature here presented without realizing — perhaps for the first time-that even from colonial times the deepest and most characteristic sides of our national life and feeling have been reproduced in our prose.

In conclusion it is proper to say that the number and length of the extracts have been determined not so much by a desire to indicate the relative rank of the several authors as by a desire to give a clear impression of the range and character of each author's production, and, in some cases, of the degree to which he expressed dominant moods of national feeling.

AUGUST 1, 1898.

G. R. C.

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