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PREFATORY NOTE. 



"1\ /FY former volume of Essays has been so klnAlj 

 — received that I am emboldened to make an- 

 other and more miscellaneous collection. The papers 

 here gathered have been wi'itten at intervals during the 

 last fifteen years, and I knew no way so effectual to rid 

 my mind^ of them and make ready for a new departure, 

 as this of shutting them between two covers where 

 they can haunt me, at least, no more. I should have 

 preferred a simpler title, but publishers nowadays are 

 inexorable on this point, and I was too much occupied 

 for happiness of choice. That which I have desperately 

 snatched is meant to imply both the books within and 

 the woi-ld without, and perhaps may pass muster in the 

 case of one who has always found his most fruitful 

 study in the open air. 



