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LITTLE CLASSICS
EDITED BY
ROSSITER JOHNSON
STORIES OFEXILE
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
The Riverside Press Cambridge
1914
COPYRIGHT, 1851 AND 1879, BY NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
AND ROSE HAWTHORNE LATHROP
COPYRIGHT, 1871 AND 1899, BY FIELDS, OSGOOD & CO. AND
BRET HARTE
COPYRIGHT, 1874, BY JAMES R. OSGOOD & CO.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
LITTLE CLASSICS.
It is not more difficult for the mineralogist to definea metal, than for the critic to define a classic. Noattribute or property of metal can be mentioned,—hardness,brittleness, malleability, magnetism, lustre,—but someacknowledged metal can be found which lacks it. So whenwe come to define what is classic in literature, we find not asingle quality that may not be dispensed with, or that is notlacking in some universally accepted and canonized piece ofcomposition. Is age a requisite? Consider Mr. Lincoln'sspeech at Gettysburg, which was recognized as classic andimmortal the hour it was flashed from the wires and printedor misprinted in the five thousand journals of the land. Isperfection of plot or unity of design necessary? "David Copperfield"can hardly be said to have a plot, and the "Merchantof Venice" is notably lacking in unity. Is detailedgrammatical and idiomatic correctness indispensable? Thenhow few are the absolute masters of English prose! It iswith some feeling of embarrassment at this lack of any perfecttest, that I have gathered the contents of these volumes andventured to call them Little Classics. And yet the genuinelovers of literature, setting aside all attempt at conscious definition,and following only their artistic instincts, will not seriouslydiffer in their opinion as to what d