PREFACE

THE Editor of this Little Book has endeavoured to present the chosen passages as nearly as possible in the form in which they left the hands of their authors. Something, indeed, has been conceded to modern punctuation where the original seemed unduly misleading, but the spelling has been left as the authors themselves apparently intended it to be. Their seeming arbitrariness is often in truth compliance with strict rules, though possibly of the writer's own making; and when variety in spelling is no serious obstacle to ready apprehension, it is surely to be preferred to the uniformity founded on the pronunciation of the majority, with which we are threatened.

The explanatory notes that have been added are so few and so brief that they hardly need an apology; some readers will still perhaps find a few difficult words in the early part of the book, but the Editor has had in view chiefly those who will prefer by a little consideration of the context to find the key to a doubtful passage themselves, without any impertinent aids to reflection.