ENGLISH.
The courses outlined, in accordance with the programme of most high
schools, take into account English, (1) as a language, (2) as a means of
expression. (3) as a literature—all so intimately connected, however, that
the proper study of each will bear indirectly on the other two.
English A. Grammar and Grammatical Analysis:—The parts of
speech with inflections and uses of each; syntax, especially of nouns, verbs,
and conjunctions; detailed study of sentence-structure, including capitalization
and punctuation. Text-book recommended: Baskervill and Sewell's
English Grammar. Grammar and analysis might well be taught through
two years of the high school. (One unit.)
English B. Composition and Rhetoric:—The choice, arrangement,
and connection of words, with exercises on synonyms, antonyms, and degrees
and shades of meaning; fundamental qualities of style, with selected and
original examples; the sentence in detail as to unity, coherence, and proportion,
with ample exercises in constructing sentences of varied types and
emphasis; the paragraph with reference to the placing of the topic and to
the attainment of unity, continuity, and emphasis, with abundant exercises
in composing good paragraphs; much practice in planning and writing
simple compositions on familiar subjects under the heads of narration,
description, exposition, and argumentation. Text-book recommended:
Brooks and Hubbard's Composition-Rhetoric. Practice in composition
should continue through the entire high-school course, though formal
rhetoric may be studied but one year. (One unit.)
English C. Critical Study of Selected Specimens of English Literature:—The
specimens for reading and study designated for college entrance
requirements by the joint committee of colleges and secondary schools.
These required books or their equivalents should be studied throughout the
high-school course under the guidance of the instructor. Parallel reading
should be encouraged and intelligent conversation about books directed.
(One unit.)
The college entrance requirements in English for 1913-1919, inclusive,
are:
A. Reading.
The aim of this part of the requirement is to foster in the student the
habit of intelligent reading and to develop a taste for good literature, by
giving him a first-hand knowledge of some of its best specimens. He should
read the books carefully, but his attention should not be so fixed upon
details that he fails to appreciate the main purpose and charm of what
he reads.
With a view to large freedom of choice, the books provided for reading
are arranged in the following groups, from each of which at least two
selections are to be made, except as otherwise provided under Group 1.
Classics in Translation.
Group 1: The Old Testament, comprising at least the chief narrative
episodes in Genesis, Exodus, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, and Daniel,
together with the books of Ruth and Esther; The Odyssey, with the omission,
if desired, of Books I, II, III, IV, V, XV, XVI, XVII; The Iliad,
with the omission, if desired, of Books XI, XIII, XIV, XV, XVII, XXI;
The Æneid. The Odyssey, Iliad, and Æneid should be read in English
translations of recognized literary excellence.
For any selection from this group a selection from any other group
may be substituted.
Shakespeare.
Group 2: Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant
of Venice, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, The Tempest, Romeo and Juliet,
King John, Richard II, Richard III, Henry V, Coriolanus, Julius Cæsar,
Macbeth, Hamlet (if not chosen for study under B).
Prose Fiction.
Group 3: Malory's Morte d'Arthur (about 100 pages); Bunyan's Pilgrim's
Progress, Part I; Swift's Gulliver's Travels (voyages to Lilliput and
to Brobdingnag); Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, Part I; Goldsmith's Vicar of
Wakefield; Frances Burney's Evelina; any one of Scott's Novels; any
one of Jane Austen's Novels; Maria Edgeworth's Castle Rackrent, or The
Absentee; any one of Dickens' Novels; any one of Thackeray's Novels:
any one of George Eliot's Novels; Mrs. Gaskell's Cranford; Kingsley's
Westward Ho! or Hereward, the Wake; Reade's The Cloister and the
Hearth; Blackmore's Lorna Doone; Hughes' Tom Brown's Schooldays;
Stevenson's Treasure Island, or Kidnapped, or Master of Ballantrae; any
one of Cooper's Novels; a selection of Poe's Tales; Hawthorne's The House
of the Seven Gables; or Twice-Told Tales, or Mosses from an Old Manse; a
collection of Short Stories by various standard writers.
Essays, Biography, Etc.
Group 4: Addison and Steele's The Sir Roger de Coverley Papers, or
selections from the Tatler and Spectator (about 200 pages); selections
from Boswell's Life of Johnson (about 200 pages); Franklin's Autobiography;
selections from Irving's Sketch Book (about 200 pages), or his Life
of Goldsmith; Southey's Life of Nelson; selections from Lamb's Essays of
Elia (about 100 pages); selections from Lockhart's Life of Scott (about
200 pages); Thackeray's lectures on Swift, Addison, and Steele in the English
Humorists; any one of the following essays of Macaulay: Lord Clive,
Warren Hastings, Milton, Addison, Goldsmith, Frederick the Great, Madame
d'Arblay; selections from Trevelyan's Life of Macaulay (about 200 pages);
Ruskin's Sesame and Lilies, or selections from Ruskin's works (about 150
pages); Dana's Two Years Before the Mast; selections from Lincoln's works,
including at least the two Inaugurals, the Speeches in Independence Hall
and at Gettysburg, the Last Public Address, the Letter to Horace Greeley,
together with a brief memoir or estimate of Lincoln; Parkman's The Oregon
Trail; Thoreau's Walden; selections from Lowell's essays (about 150
pages); Holmes' The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table; Stevenson's An
Inland Voyage and Travels with a Donkey; Huxley's Autobiography and
selections from Lay Sermons, including the addresses on Improving Natural
Knowledge, A Liberal Education, and A Piece of Chalk; a collection of
Essays by Bacon, Lamb, DeQuincey, Hazlitt, Emerson and later writers;
a collection of Letters by various standard writers.
Poetry.
Group 5: Palgrave's Golden Treasury (First Series), Books II and
III, with special attention to Dryden, Collins, Gray, Cowper, and Burns;
Palgrave's Golden Treasury (First Series), Book IV, with special attention
to Wordsworth, Keats, and Shelley (if not chosen for study under B);
Goldsmith's The Traveller and The Deserted Village; Pope's The Rape of
the Lock; a collection of English and Scottish Ballads, as, for example,
some Robin Hood ballads, The Battle of Otterburn, King Estmere, Young
Beichan, Bewick, and Grahame, Sir Patrick Spens, and a selection from
later ballads; Coleridge's The Ancient Mariner, Christabel, and Kubla
Khan; Byron's Childe Harold, Canto III or IV, and The Prisoner of Chillon;
Scott's The Lady of the Lake, or Marmion; Macaulay's The Lays of
Ancient Rome, The Battle of Naseby, The Armada, Ivry; Tennyson's The
Princess, or Gareth and Lynette, Lancelot and Elaine, and Passing of
Arthur; Browning's Cavalier Tunes, The Lost Leader, How They Brought
the Good News from Ghent to Aix, Home Thoughts from Abroad, Home
Thoughts from the Sea, Incident of the French Camp, Hervé Riel, Pheidippides,
My Last Duchess, Up at a Villa—Down in the City, The Italian in
England, The Patriot, The Pied Piper, "De Gustibus," Instans Tyrannus;
Arnold's
Sohrab and Rustum, and
The Forsaken Merman; selections from
American poetry, with special attention to Poe, Lowell, Longfellow, and
Whittier.
B. Study.
This part of the requirement is intended as a natural and logical continuation
of the student's earlier reading, with greater stress laid upon
form and style, the exact meaning of words and phrases, and the understanding
of allusions. The books provided for study are arranged in four
groups, from each of which one selection is to be made.
Drama.
Group 1: Shakespeare's Julius Cæsar, Macbeth, Hamlet.
Poetry.
Group 2: Milton's L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, and either Comus or Lycidas;
Tennyson's The Coming of Arthur, The Holy Grail, and The Passing
of Arthur; the selections from Wordsworth, Keats, and Shelley, in Book IV
of Palgrave's Golden Treasury (First Series).
Oratory.
Group 3: Burke's Speech on Conciliation with America; Macaulay's
Speech on Copyright and Lincoln's Speech at Cooper Union; Washington's
Farewell Address and Webster's First Bunker Hill Oration.
Essays.
Group 4: Carlyle's Essay on Burns, with a selection from Burns'
Poems; Macaulay's Life of Johnson; Emerson's Essay on Manners.
English D. History of English and American Literature. (One
unit.)
