Bloloqw 



preface 



I TRUST the following pages need no explana- 

 tion ; and the necessity of a preface would be 

 done away with, much to the author's relief, were 

 it not that here, if anywhere, acknowledgments 

 may be made. Three of the following essays 

 have appeared in Lippincotfs Magazine, and are 

 here reproduced by kind permission of the pub- 

 lishers of that periodical. Here and there through- 

 out the volume are paragraphs that have seen the 

 light before, but these preliminary items were 

 but the nuclei about which have since clustered 

 what I hope will prove to be profitable reflections 

 readably expressed. C. C. A. 



TRENTON, N. J., April 12, 1896. 



