PEEFACB 



TO 



THE THIRD EDITION 



' ESSAYS Speculative and Suggestive ' has long been out of 

 print. For a copy of the first edition, issued by Messrs. 

 Chapman & Hall, in 1890, I had to pay 4. 12s., while 

 a copy of the second edition, also by Messrs. Chapman & 

 Hall, 1893, could not be found anywhere, though an order 

 has been for some years in the hands of several well-known 

 booksellers. The fact that those who had bought this book 

 treasured it would have pleased' Symonds in no small degree, 

 for the passages I shall presently quote from his corre- 

 spondence show that he set much store by this piece of 

 work, had taken great pains over it, and was deeply hurt 

 by the cold reception it received at the hands of the press. 



'Essays Speculative and Suggestive' appeared in June 

 1890, and Symonds died in April 1893. Though it was to 

 be followed by 'Our Life in the Swiss Highlands,' 'The 

 Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti,' and 'Walt Whitman,' it 

 is to be considered among the author's later works, both in 

 thought and style. Later, not matured, for ill-health retarded 

 and death cut short the full development of his powers of mind 

 and of pen, and those who knew him best felt that he was 

 still in ' werden,' in process, when the end came. Symonds 

 himself was aware of the change in style which is manifest 

 in these Essays. Writing half in jest, on February 16, 1889, 

 when he had just begun the shaping of his book, after finishing 



