I
We left off last term, Gentlemen, upon a note of protest. We
wondered why it should be that our English Version of the Bible
lies under the ban of school-masters, Boards of Studies, and all
who devise courses of reading and examinations in English
Literature: that among our `prescribed books' we find Chaucer's
"Prologue," we find "Hamlet," we find "Paradise Lost," we find
Pope's "Essay on Man," again and again, but "The Book of Job"
never; "The Vicar of Wakefield" and Gray's "Elegy" often, but
"Ruth" or "Isaiah," "Ecclesiasticus" or "Wisdom" never.