INTRODUCTORY 



THERE are several reasons why this pre- 

 face is not more apologetic than it is. 

 Authors have for so many centuries been 

 in such transports of glad apology, and 

 have displayed so curious an ingenuity in 

 expressing that diffident but hopeful emotion 

 that, search as I will, I can happen on 

 no set of phrases that looks original even 

 to myself. Yet I willingly concede the right- 

 ness of the apologetic mood in an author, 

 and especially in this author, and I have 

 large sympathy with those critics who will 

 be unable to see the necessity for this 

 volume. They will be unable to see it 

 for a very proper reason there is no 

 necessity. 



Vll 



