The Plan Proposed.
THE BEGINNING OF A NEW ERA.
And now it is evident, from what has been said, that we stand upon the eve of a great movement in history and literature.

Up to this time everything had been more or less tentative, experimental, and disconnected, all tending indeed, but with little unity of action, toward an established order.

It began to be acknowledged that though the clergy might write in Latin, and Frenchmen in French, the English should "show their fantasyes in such words as we learneden of our dame's tonge," and it was equally evident that that English must be cultivated and formed into a fitting vehicle for vigorous English thought.

To do this, a master mind was required, and such a master mind appeared in the person of Chaucer.

It is particularly fortunate for our historic theory that his works, constituting the origin of our homogeneous English literature, furnish forth its best and most striking demonstration.
CHAUCER'S BIRTH .-- Geoffrey Chaucer was born at London about the year 1328: as to the exact date, we waive all the discussion in which his biographers have engaged, and consider this fixed as the most probable time.