Excerpt from The Tutorial History of English Literature
The common complaint against smaller text-books of literature is that they include too much, and fail to pre serve due proportion between the greater and the lesser writers. In this book the lesser writers are mentioned, if at all, only incidentally; and the attempt has been made, in passing from one great writer to another, to give the history, as distinguished from the mere story, of English literature - to lay bare some of the more important aspects of the work of each author selected, while tracing the lines of development from writer to writer - in a word, to make an elementary book scientific, as far as the methods of science are applicable. In this task I have had no model before me to improve upon, and am more painfully aware, than any friendly reader or critic can be, of Shortcomings in its execution. In particular I have felt the difficulty of being consistent in difficulty: of avoiding the Opposite dangers of 'talking over people's heads' and childish simplicity. The former danger may be largely obviated if the student, before perusing each chapter, will read the English Classics recommended on.
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