| He who goes through a rich man’s park, and sees things in it which never bless the mental eyesight of the possessor, is richer than he. |
| —On the Realities of Imagination |
| Leigh Hunt |
Harvard Classics, Vol. 27
English Essays
From Sir Philip Sidney to Macaulay
Four centuries of the development of English prose are illustrated by 24 works from 17 authors, ranging from those best known for the essay, like Addison and Hazlitt, to those, like Jonson and Coleridge, whose poetic spirit infuses all their writings.
Contents
NEW YORK: P.F. COLLIER & SON COMPANY, 1909–14
NEW YORK: BARTLEBY.COM, 2001
- Sir Philip Sidney
- Introductory Note
- The Defense of Poesy
- Ben Jonson
- Introductory Note
- On Shakespeare
- On Bacon
- Abraham Cowley
- Introductory Note
- Of Agriculture
- Joseph Addison
- Introductory Note
- The Vision of Mirza
- Westminster Abbey
- Sir Richard Steele
- Introductory Note
- The Spectator Club
- Jonathan Swift
- Introductory Note
- Hints Towards an Essay on Conversation
- A Treatise on Good Manners and Good Breeding
- A Letter of Advice to a Young Poet
- On the Death of Esther Johnson [Stella]
- Daniel Defoe
- Introductory Note
- The Shortest-Way with the Dissenters
- The Education of Women
- Samuel Johnson
- Introductory Note
- Life of Addison, 1672–1719
- David Hume
- Introductory Note
- Of the Standard of Taste
- Sydney Smith
- Introductory Note
- Fallacies of Anti-Reformers
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- Introductory Note
- On Poesy or Art
- William Hazlitt
- Introductory Note
- Of Persons One Would Wish to Have Seen
- Leigh Hunt
- Introductory Note
- Deaths of Little Children
- On the Realities of Imagination
- Charles Lamb
- Introductory Note
- On the Tragedies of Shakspere
- Thomas De Quincey
- Introductory Note
- Levana and Our Ladies of Sorrow
- Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Introductory Note
- A Defence of Poetry
- Thomas Babington Macaulay
- Introductory Note
- Machiavelli