OF EMINENT BRITISH POETS, CHRONOLOGICALLY ARRANGED FROM CHAUCER TO BURNS, WITH CRITICISMS ON THEIR WORKS, SELECTED FROM INTENDED FOR TEACHERS, AND THE HIGHER CLASSES IN SCHOOLS. No species of writing seems more worthy of cultivation than Biography; PUBLISHED BY DIRECTION OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF NATIONAL EDUCATION IN IRELAND. DUBLIN: PRINTED BY ALEX. THOM & SONS, 87, ABBEY-STREET, PREFACE. THE following Biographical and Critical Sketches have been compiled for the use of teachers, and for such of their pupils, in the advanced classes, as may be qualified to profit by the study of literary biography. It was thought that the Selections from the Foats would be read with a more lively interest, and with a greater probability of making a lasting impression, if accompanied by notices of their authors. To youthful readers there is no department of literature more attractive and useful than biography. It conveys Instruction in a simple and pleasing form. The great object effected by it is the improvement of the mind by means of example, which is frequently more powerful in its influence than mere precept. Impressed with a conviction of this truth, the compiler trusts that the memoirs of the several writers, drawn up expressly for this work, will have the effect of inducing the young student to enter upon a more extensive field of biographical inquiry, and of qualifying him to exercise a sound judgment on their literary merits. In the preparation of these notices of eminent British poets, the compiler has endeavoured to be accurate and impartial. He does not lay claim either to extensive research or original criticism; he aspires only to the |