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Coppee, Henry

"English Literature, Considered as an Interpreter of English History Designed as a Manual of Instruction"


But language is impatient of retaining two words which convey the same
meaning; and although science had at first to do with the fact of knowing
and the conditions of knowledge in the abstract, while literature meant
the written record of such knowledge, a far more distinct sphere has been
given to each in later times, and special functions assigned them.
In general terms, Science now means any branch of knowledge in which men
search for principles reaching back to the ultimate, or for facts which
establish these principles, or are classified by them in a logical order.
Thus we speak of the mathematical, physical, metaphysical, and moral
sciences.
Literature, which is of later development as at present used, comprises
those subjects which have a relation to human life and human nature
through the power of the imagination and the fancy. Technically,
literature includes _history, poetry, oratory, the drama_, and _works of
fiction_, and critical productions upon any of these as themes.
Such, at least, will be a sufficiently exact division for our purpose,
although the student will find them overlapping each other's domain
occasionally, interchanging functions, and reciprocally serving for each
other's advantage.


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