Critically acclaimed classic lets Puritans speak for themselves in crucial documents covering history, theory of state and society, religion, customs, behavior, biographies and letters, poetry, literary theory, education, science, and more. Regarded by historian Samuel Eliot Morison as "the best selection ever made of Puritan literature, point of view and culture."

Critically acclaimed classic lets Puritans speak for themselves in crucial documents covering history, theory of state and society, religion, customs, behavior, biographies and letters, poetry, literary theory, education, science, and more. Regarded by historian Samuel Eliot Morison as "the best selection ever made of Puritan literature, point of view and culture."

This volume attempts to represent European theories of poetry from Plato's time to the year 1700. Editor Allan H. Gilbert has selected writers who in their own day spoke for the future rather than the past, and those whose conceptions are of value at present, either in developing our own critical thought or in interpreting the most important literature of their own ages.