iv PREFACE. 
The author, also, has had full access to the com- 
plete works of the Old English Poets, and accord- 
ingly he has selected many beautiful gems from 
that casket of rare worth. 
“ There is religion in a flower,” 
as has been sung. The author hopes that the in- 
fluence of his book may be religious in one sense.; 
that it may cause the Graces of Life to throng 
around the hearth-stone, and scatter flowers of 
harmless joy and pleasure in those homes where it 
shall visit. Thus he dismisses it; saying in the 
language of Old Aleyn, that {C Well of English 
undefiled, ” 
“ GO, LITTLE BOOK, GOD SEND THEE GOOD PASSAGE !” 
J. W. H. 
Lowell , .May, 1846. 
