QUARTER OF THE WORLD NOW SHINE MORE BRIGHTLY

THIS VOLUME IS IN LOVE AND GRATITUDE
DEDICATED BY HIS SON

THE AUTHOR

PREFACE BY WAY OF CRITICISM

These studies are collected from the monthly press. One appeared in the
_New Quarterly_, one in _Macmillan's_, and the rest in the _Cornhill
Magazine_. To the _Cornhill_ I owe a double debt of thanks; first, that
I was received there in the very best society, and under the eye of the
very best of editors; and second, that the proprietors have allowed me
to republish so considerable an amount of copy.

These nine worthies have been brought together from many different ages
and countries. Not the most erudite of men could be perfectly prepared
to deal with so many and such various sides of human life and manners.
To pass a true judgment upon Knox and Burns implies a grasp upon the
very deepest strain of thought in Scotland,--a country far more
essentially different from England than many parts of America; for, in a
sense, the first of these men re-created Scotland, and the second is its
most essentially national production. To treat fitly of Hugo and Villon
would involve yet wider knowledge, not only of a country foreign to the
author by race, history, and religion, but of the growth and liberties
of art. Of the two Americans, Whitman and Thoreau, each is the type of
something not so much realised as widely sought after among the late
generations of their countrymen; and to see them clearly in a nice
relation to the society that brought them forth, an author would require
a large habit of life among modern Americans. As for Yoshida, I have
already disclaimed responsibility; it was but my hand that held the pen.

In truth, these are but the readings of a literary vagrant. One book
led to another, one study to another. The first was published with
trepidation. Since no bones were broken, the second was launched with
greater confidence. So, by insensible degrees, a young man of our
generation acquires, in his own eyes, a kind of roving judicial
commission through the ages: and, having once escaped the perils of the
Freemans and the Furnivalls, sets himself up to right the wrongs of
universal history and criticism. Now it is one thing to write with
enjoyment on a subject while the story is hot in your mind from recent
reading, coloured with recent prejudice; and it is quite another
business to put these writings coldly forth again in a bound volume. We
are most