STUDIES

IN

ENGLISH LITERATURE.

DEFINITIONS.

I.

LITERATURE AND ITS DEPARTMENTS.

1. Literature (Lat. literatura, from litera, a letter), in its most general import, is the collective body of literary productions preserved in writing; but, in its specific sense, it includes only those writings that come within the sphere of rhetoric, or the literary art.

I. The definition excludes from the category of literature all
books that are technical or special in their scope-hence all
works of mere science or erudition,—so that, varying the form
of statement, we may say that the literature of any nation is
its body of "volumes paramount," dealing with subjects of
common interest and clothed in the form of literary art.
II. The French term belles-lettres (literally elegant letters, “po-
lite literature") is sometimes used as synonymous with liter-
ature in its stricter sense.

2. Classification by Form.-As regards the form of expression, literary productions are divided into two classesprose and verse (poetry).