from Compendious History of English Literature, Vol,of: And of the English Language, From the Norman Conquest, With Numerous Specimens
IN the largest or loosest sense of the expressionHistory of English Literature might be taken to mean an account of everything that has been written in the language.
But neither is the literature of a language everything that has been written in it, nor would all that has been written in the language necessarily com prehend all its literature, for much true literature may exist, and has existed, without having been written.
Literature is composed of words, of thought reduced to the form of words but the words need not be written it is enough that they be spoken or sung, or even only conceived.
All that writing does is to record and preserve them, It no more endows them with any new character than money acquires a new character by being locked up in a desk or paid into a bank,
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This book is a reproduction of an important historical work, Forgotten Books uses stateoftheart technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy, In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition, We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works, George Lillie Craikwas a Scottish writer and literary critic, Born at Kennoway, Fife, he was educated at the University of St, Andrews, and went to London in, where he wrote largely for the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, Inhe was appointed Professor of English Literature and History at Belfast, Among his books are The New Zealanders, The Pursuit of Knowledge under Difficulties, History of British Commerce, and History of English Literature and the English Language, He was also joint author of The Pictorial History of England, and wrote books on Edmund Spenser and Francis Bacon, In, while a partner at MacMillan, he married Dinah Mulock, author of John Halifax, Gentlema George Lillie Craikwas a Scottish writer and literary critic, Born at Kennoway, Fife, he was educated at the
University of St, Andrews, and went to London in, where he wrote largely for the "Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, " Inhe was appointed Professor of English Literature and History at Belfast, Among his books are The New Zealanders, The Pursuit of Knowledge under Difficulties, History of British Commerce, and History of English Literature and the English Language, He was also joint author of The Pictorial History of England, and wrote books on Edmund Spenser and Francis Bacon, In, while a partner at MacMillan, he married Dinah Mulock, author of John Halifax, Gentleman, sitelink.