Chapter I: Preface

SIXTEEN of these Letters, which were written at the suggestion of the Editor of the “St. James’s Gazette,” appeared in that journal, from which they are now reprinted, by the Editor’s kind permission. They have been somewhat emended, and a few additions have been made. The Letters to Horace, Byron, Isaak Walton, Chapelain, Ronsard, and Theocritus have not been published before.

The gem on the title-page, now engraved for the first time, is a red cornelian in the British Museum, probably Græco-Roman, and treated in an archaistic style. It represents Hermes Psychagogos, with a Soul, and has some likeness to the Baptism of Our Lord, as usually shown in art. Perhaps it may be post-Christian. The gem was selected by Mr. A. S. Murray.

It is, perhaps, superfluous to add that some of the Letters are written rather to suit the Correspondent than to express the writer’s own taste or opinions. The Epistle to Lord Byron, especially, is “writ in a manner which is my aversion.”

CONTENTS.

PAGE
I. TO W. M. THACKERAY 1
II. TO CHARLES DICKENS 10
III. TO PIERRE DE RONSARD 22
IV. TO HERODOTUS 34
V. EPISTLE TO MR. ALEXANDER POPE 46
VI. TO LUCIAN OF SAMOSATA 55
VII. TO MAÎTRE FRANÇOYS RABELAIS 66
VIII. TO JANE AUSTEN 75
IX. TO MASTER ISAAK WALTON 86
X. TO M. CHAPELAIN 98
XI. TO SIR JOHN MAUNDEVILLE, KT. 110
XII. TO ALEXANDRE DUMAS 119
XIII. TO THEOCRITUS 130
XIV. TO EDGAR ALLAN POE 140
XV. TO SIR WALTER SCOTT, BART. 152
XVI. TO EUSEBIUS OF CÆSAREA 162
XVII. TO PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY 173
XVIII. TO MONSIEUR DE MOLIÈRE, VALET DE CHAMBRE DU ROI 184
XIX. TO ROBERT BURNS 195
XX. TO LORD BYRON 205
XXI. TO OMAR KHAYYÂM 216
XXII. TO Q. HORATIUS FLACCUS 223