ned the poets as those:--

"Who gave us nobler loves and nobler cares."

The Mission of English Literature.--It is a pertinent question to
ask, What has English literature to offer?

In the first place, to quote Ben Jonson:--

"The thirst that from the soul cloth rise
Doth ask a drink divine."

English literature is of preeminent worth in helping to supply that
thirst. It brings us face to face with great ideals, which increase
our sense of responsibility for the stewardship of life and tend to
raise the level of our individual achievement. We have a heightened
sense of the demands which life makes and a better comprehension of
the "far-off divine event" toward which we move, after we have heard
Swinburne's ringing call:--

"...this thing is God,
To be man with thy might,
To grow straight in the strength
of thy spirit, and live out thy life
as the light."

We feel prompted to act on the suggestion of--

"...him who sings
To one clear harp in divers tones,
That men may rise on striping-stones
Of their dead selves to higher things."[4]

In the second place, the various spiritual activities demanded for the
interpretation of the best things in literature add to enjoyment. This
pleasure, unlike that which arises from physical gratification,
increases with age, and often becomes the principal source of
entertainment as life advances. Shakespeare has Prospero say:--

"...my library
Was dukedom large enough."

The suggestions from great minds disclose vistas that we might never
otherwise see. Browning truly says:--

"...we're made so that we love
First when we see them painted, things we have passed
Perhaps a hundred tunes nor cared to see."

Sometimes it is only after reading Shakespeare that we can see--

"...winking Mary buds begin
To ope their golden eyes.
With everything that pretty is."

and only after spending some time in Wordsworth's company that the
common objects of our daily life become invested with--

"The glory and the freshness of a dream."

In the third place, we should emphasize the fact that one great
function of English literature is to bring deliverance to souls weary
with routine, despondent, or suffering the stroke of some affliction.
In order to transfigure the everyday duties of life, there is need of
imagination, of a vision such as the poets give. Without such a vision
the tasks of life are drudgery. The dra