INTRODUCTORY. 



and our places of business, shedding their soft 

 charms within the rude, rough sphere of this hurry- 

 ing, pushing, hard, and too practical modern life 

 of ours ! And if this volume may be the means 

 of shedding even the smallest additional ray of 

 happiness across the path of those who may 

 read it, the knowledge of such a result will be to 

 the Author the source of the most sincere and 

 heartfelt satisfaction. 



The preceding introductory pages were pub- 

 lished, under the address of ' The Author to the 

 Reader,' as the Preface to the first three Editions 

 of 'THE FERN PARADISE :' and they briefly unfold 

 the aim and object of the volume. ' When, how- 

 ever, an Author ventures upon the course of 

 putting his suggestions into print, and issuing 

 them in book-form, he must be prepared for the 

 criticism of his Reviewers. Criticism is neces- 

 sarily of two kinds. The one kind relates to the 

 literary merits or demerits of a work : the other is 

 concerned with its subject, its raison-d? etre. 



Is the object of this volume one which it was 



35 



