A Book of English Prose / Part II, Arranged for Secondary and High Schools

This anthology gathers representative English prose selections arranged for secondary and high-school readers, offering historical speeches, essays, diary and travel excerpts, argumentative and devotional passages, and comic sketches. Selections range from medieval narrative and Elizabethan rhetoric through seventeenth- and eighteenth-century moral, political, and reflective prose to later conversational and critical pieces, juxtaposing a variety of voices and forms. The arrangement highlights contrasts in diction and rhetorical method while illustrating recurring concerns such as mortality, public life, study and character, taste, and the art of conversation, with selections chosen to show stylistic development and practical models for close reading.