PROLOGUE
LECTOR BENEVOLE!
--FOR SO
THEY USED TO CALL YOU, YEARS AGO,--
I CAN'T PRETEND TO MAKE YOU READ
THE PAGES THAT TO THIS SUCCEED;
NOR COULD I--IF I WOULD--EXCUSE
THE WAYWARD PROMPTINGS OF THE MUSE
AT WHOSE COMMAND I WROTE THEM DOWN.
I HAVE NO HOPE TO "PLEASE THE TOWN."
I DID BUT THINK SOME FRIENDLY SOUL
(NOT ILL-ADVISED, UPON THE WHOLE!)
MIGHT LIKE THEM; AND "TO INTERPOSE
A LITTLE EASE," BETWEEN THE PROSE,
SLIPPED IN THE SCRAPS OF VERSE, THAT THUS
THINGS MIGHT BE LESS MONOTONOUS.
THEN,
LECTOR
, BE
BENEVOLUS!
| [The Author desires to express his thanks to Lord Northcliffe, Messrs. Macmillan and Co., Messrs. Smith, Elder and Co., Mr. William Heinemann, and Messrs. Virtue and Co., for kind permission to reprint those pieces in this volume concerning which no specific arrangements were made on their first appearance in type.] |
CONTENTS
On Some Books And Their Associations
The Passionate Printer To His Love
The Friend Of Humanity And The Rhymer
A Pleasant Invective Against Printing
Two Modern Book Illustrators--I. Kate Greenaway
Two Modern Book Illustrators--II. Mr. Hugh Thomson
Horatian Ode On The Tercentenary Of "Don Quixote"