and Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . _Sir William Temple_ 40

A Day in the Country . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _Samuel Pepys_ 42

Captain Singleton in China . . . . . . . . . . . . _Daniel Defoe_ 46

The Art of Conversation . . . . . . . . . . . . _Jonathan Swift_ 51

The Royal Exchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _Joseph Addison_ 56

Sir Roger de Coverley's Ancestors . . . . . . . _Richard Steele_ 60

Partridge at the Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . _Henry Fielding_ 65

A Journey in a Stage-coach . . . . . . . . . . . _Samuel Johnson_ 71

Uncle Toby and Corporal Trim . . . . . . . . . . _Laurence Sterne_ 76

The Funeral of George II . . . . . . . . . . . . _Horace Walpole_ 79

The Credulity of the English . . . . . . . . . . _Oliver Goldsmith_ 83

Decay of the Principles of Liberty . . . . . . . . . _Edmund Burke_ 85

The Candidate for Parliament . . . . . . . . . . . _William Cowper_ 89

Youth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _Edward Gibbon_ 93

First Sight of Dr Johnson . . . . . . . . . . . . _James Boswell_ 94

Arrival at Osbaldistone Hall . . . . . . . . . . _Sir Walter Scott_ 100

A Visit to Coleridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _Charles Lamb_ 107

Diogenes and Plato . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _W. S. Landor_ 109

An Invitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _Jane Austen_ 113

Coleridge as Preacher . . . . . . . . . . . . . _William Hazlitt_ 118

A Dream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _Thomas de Quincey_ 120

The Use of Poetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _John Keats_ 122

The Flight to Varennes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _Thomas Carlyle_ 124

The Trial of the Seven Bishops . . . . . . . . . . _Lord Macaulay_ 130

The University of Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _J. H. Newman_ 135

The House of the Seven Gables . . . . . . . _Nathaniel Hawthorne_ 140

Denis Duval's first journey to London . . . . . _W. M. Thackeray_ 144

Storm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _Charles Dickens_ 149

Jane Eyre and Mr Rochester . . . . . . . . . . . _Charlotte Bronte_ 153

A Hut in the Woods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _H. D. Thoreau_ 157

A Miser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _George Eliot_ 159

Ships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _John Ruskin_ 163

The Child in the House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _Walter Pater_ 168