Historie is my chiefe studie, Poesie my only delight, to which I am particularly affected: for as Cleanthes said, that as the voice being forciblie pent in the narrow gullet of a trumpet, at last issueth forth more strong and shriller, so me seemes, that a sentence cunningly and closely couched in measure-keeping Posie, darts itselfe forth more furiously, and wounds me even to the quicke. Montaigne, "Essays," I. 25. TRAVELLER'S JOY COMPILED BY W. G. WATERS ... an eternal book Whence I may copy many a lovely saying It came. Keats. NEW YORK E. P. DUTTON & CO. 917 W331 tra PREFACE THE work of the contemporary anthologist must needs differ both in character and in aim from that of him who gleaned in the scantier field of the past, seeing that every succeeding decade has largely increased the literary store from which he may gather. Fresh volumes of selections follow one another without intermission, and these, with a few marked exceptions, quickly sink into oblivion; but the supply of anthologists seems as inexhaustible as that of ungarnered masterpieces. Various reasons may be advanced for this persistence. The fact that all the great prizes have been appropriated and set finally in the treasury of immortal achievement will not daunt the searcher who is really in earnest. The ardour of the chase waxes with the rarity of the prey. The wealth of our literature is so immense! How many fascinating byways are there which are only familiar to the diligent student, and of those which are thoroughly explored only an inconsiderable portion is known to the general ν M852936 |