PUPLIC LIBRARY 241113 ASTON, CLNUX AND COPYRIGHT, 1880, BY U. P. PUTNAM'S SONS. NEM AOBK PREFACE. THE following pages may be said to form a sequel to the "Studies in German Literature" published last autumn, inasmuch as they show what the author accomplished in the way of briefer literary and analytical criticism. It was only in the latter part of his very active life, and chiefly by force of circumstance, that he was led-in the midst of other work-to devote himself more earnestly to critical writing, which he considered an assistance toward attaining, but not as being essential to, his great object in life. After he had arrived at that mature stage of existence, when all the energy inherent in his nature turned toward the higher forms of creative art, he was driven back by an adverse fate to the field of daily journalism, which he had left more than twenty years before, as he then thought never to return. His life consequently became a much more laborious one than ever, not now from free choice as hitherto, but from necessity. Yet, amid the severe pressure of his daily tasks, and the diversity of subjects which came under |