148 



THE POPULAR EDUCATOR. 



No further assertion on my part is necessary, as to my doing 

 my best to merit the confidence reposed in me. 



Be so kind as to favour me with a reply, and should there 

 be no vacancy in your firm, let me know what chances there 

 are of obtaining a post among your friends, 

 And believe me, Sir, 

 Your very obedient and humble servant, 



A. WOLFF. 



Metz, le 15 Mars, 1882 

 Monsieur E. Merle, & Londres. 



Monsieur, C'est sur la recommandation de Monsieur Lccou- 

 teur, chez qui je travaille depuis plus de cinq ans, que je prends 

 ]a liberte de vous ecrire pour vous offrir mes services. Le desir 

 d'etendre mes connaissances commorciales et de me rendre 

 plus familiere une langue dont les principes me sont deja connus, 

 peut seul mo determiner h, quitter une maison a laquelle je dois 

 beaucoup, pour chercher une place a 1'etranger. 



Je me suis occupe pendant trois ans de la tenue des livres, 

 j'ai ete charge ensuite pendant les deux dernieres annees de la 

 correspondance en anglais et en allemand. J'ai donne toute 

 mon attention & 1' etude du change, et j'ose mo flatter que je 

 pourrais acquitter a votre satisfaction des fonctions qui se 

 rattacheraient ti, la correspondance ou & la partie des comptes- 

 courants. 



Quant k ma position dans cette maison, je m'en refero au 

 temoignage de Monsieur Lecouteur, qui m'a promis de vous 

 ecrire en ma faveur. 



Je ne dis mot sur lo fait que je ferai de mon mieux pour jus- 

 tifier la confiance dont on aura bien voulu m'honorer. 



Veuillez, je vous prie, m'honoror d'une response, et en cas 

 oh il n'y aurait pas de place chez vous, de me faire savoir 

 s'il y aurait la chance d'en obtenir uno chez un de vos amis, et 

 agreer 1'assurance de 1'estime avec laquelle 



J'ai 1'honneur d'etre, Monsieur, 

 Votre tres-humble et tres-obeissant serviteur, 



A. WOLFF. 



13. LETTER ON TRANSFER OF ORDER OR COMMISSION. 



Philpot Lane, London, February 10th, 1882 5 

 Messrs. Martin and Co., Boulogne. 



Gentlemen, We beg to forward you a letter just received 

 from Mous. Achard, of Dieppe. You are in a better position to 

 undertake this little matter. Will you undertake it ? 

 We are, Gentlemen, most truly yours, 



SMITH Baos. 



Philpot Lane, Londres, 10 Fevrier, 1882 

 Messieurs Martin et C le , & Boulogne. 



Messieurs, Nous avons 1'honneurdevous adresser uno lettro 

 ' que nous recevons de Monsieur Achard, a Dieppe. Vous etes 

 inieux places que nous pour traiter cette petite affaire. Vous 

 convient-il de vous en charger P 



Agreez, Messieurs, nos cordiales salutations, 



SMITH FRERES. 



LESSONS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. III. 



CHAUCEE AND HIS TIMES. 



FROM whatever point of view it be regarded, the reign of 

 Edward III. must always be one of the most important epochs 

 in the history of England ; but to the student of literature it is 

 especially so. 



Long before this time indeed, for centuries a gradual fusion 

 must have been in progress between the two races, Norman 

 and Saxon. The bitter memories of the Conquest, and the 

 oppression which followed it, had faded. The spirit of haughty 

 contempt on the one side and hatred on the other, had gradually 

 passed away. The Norman nobles and the older Saxon families 

 had become assimilated in privileges and position ; and through- 

 out all classes the diversities of race were becoming forgotten. 

 The English language, too, was little by little conquering in the 

 struggle with its rival, the French, and becoming the language 

 of the whole people. We are told by the old chroniclers, that 

 down to the fourteenth century, and during at least a great 

 part of it, French was the language of the grammar-schools, 

 and even Latin was taught to English boys through the medium 

 5f the French. But we read that one John Cornwal intro- 

 duced tho system of teaching in English, and being followed 



by others who learned of him, the practice soon spread, and 

 ultimately became universal. From some time after the Con- 

 quest, French had been the language of the courts of law ; 

 but in 1362 an Act was passed substituting English for it ; 

 and the very significant reason is given in the preamble, that 

 tho language of the courts was no longer understood by the 

 parties to the causes. The fire necessary to complete this 

 fusion of different elements into a single nation was supplied 

 by the French wars of Edward III. For the first time England 

 as a nation was called upon to measure her strength against 

 one of the great nations of the Continent ; and her success was 

 brilliant. The enthusiasm of war and the pride of victory gave 

 birth to a spirit of nationality, which was the one thing needed 

 to complete the unity of the nation. And the fact that tho 

 national enemy was France, with the hatred of things French 

 thence arising, must have decided the victory of English as 

 the national language over its French rival. 



But it was not in foreign war alone that England in that day 

 showed that men's energies had fully awoke from the sleep of 

 tho dark ages ; nor was such a revival confined to England. 

 Everywhere in Europe old forms of faith were being sternly 

 questioned. Old systems of philosophy were cast aside. Old 

 institutions and social organisations were giving place to new. 

 It was the age that saw the death of the scholastic philosophy 

 and of the system of chivalry. It saw the revival of ancient 

 learning, the first real efforts to throw off the corruptions of 

 religion both in doctrine and in practice, and the commence- 

 ment of modern literature. In England, the religious reforma- 

 tion attempted under Wickliffe, on one side ; and on another side 

 the rising spirit of the poorer classes, still burdened under the 

 yoke of feudalism, a spirit which soon after led to the great 

 rising of the commons under Wat Tyler, showed that England 

 had participated in the general movement. But till the time at 

 which we have now arrived that is to say, the latter part of 

 the fourteenth century she was behind the rest of Europe in 

 literature. In Italy, Dante had produced his great work in the 

 beginning of the century. Petrarch and Boccaccio had written 

 since. In other countries, too, much had been done. But, as we 

 have seen, England was still without a literature. Now, how- 

 ever, everything was in her favour. Her national unity was 

 achieved ; her language was practically formed ; the mental 

 energy was present; and the desire for knowledge was BO 

 universal, that we are told, on authority which it ia difficult 

 to disbelieve, that at Oxford and Cambridge the students 

 might then be counted by thousands where they now are by 

 hundreds. 



From comparatively early in the reign of Edward III., we find 

 signs of the revival of a national spirit in the popular songs on 

 subjects of national interest. Among these the most important 

 which have been printed are a series of ten very spirited ballads 

 by Laurence Minot, upon various battles and other achieve- 

 ments of Edward III. 



But the first work of considerable extent and merit which de- 

 mands our attention is the remarkable allegorical and satirical 

 poem, " The Vision of Piers Ploughman." We treat this as 

 the first because, though the year of its composition cannot 

 be exactly fixed, it belongs in form and style so much more to 

 the preceding age than any other great poem of the period, and 

 shows so much less trace of the direct action of foreign influence, 

 that it naturally takes the first place in order among the poems 

 of the age of Chaucer. The author of " The Vision of Piers 

 Ploughman" is said, and there is no reason to disbelieve it, 

 to have been one Robert or William Langland, or Longland, a 

 native of Staffordshire, who lived as a monk at Malvern : and 

 his placing the scene of his vision in the Malvern hills confirms 

 a part, at least, of the story. 



This singular poem relates a dream, or rather a series of 

 dreams, in which the poet sees, allegorically, tho corruption 

 and misery of the world ; the remedy for those evils in the 

 pursuit of truth ; and the one guide to truth and regenerator 

 of the world in the person of Peter the Ploughman. The 

 world is a field full of people. Here are the poor toiling, the 

 rich wasting ; the lawyers pleading for hire ; the clergy idle 

 and corrupt ; the pardoners deceiving the people for gain ; 

 yet all the while the cast'.e of Truth stands just above them, 

 though they see it not. At court mede (corrupt gain), and 

 falsehood, and wrong contend with conscience, and peace, 

 and reason ; and lawyers, and confessors, and counsellors are 



