By Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, M.A. Fellow of Jesus College King Edward VII Professor of English Literature New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons Jel THE PREFACE “HE first of these 'studies,' The Commerce of Thought, was originally read before an audience at the Royal Institution of London. Coleridge and Matthew Arnold have appeared as Introductions in 'The World's Classics' series, and I thank the Oxford University Press for allowing me to reprint them. Swinburne was written for 'The Edinburgh Review,' and Charles Reade for 'The Times Literary Supplement' on the centenary of Reade's birth. I cannot quarrel with any critic who may find the word 'studies' too important for a volume which consists, in the main, of familiar discourses: and will only plead that it was chosen to cover not this book alone but a successor of which some part of the contents may better justify the general title. For example, in the lecture here printed On the Terms 'Classical' and 'Romantic' I purposely contented myself with discussing some elementary and (as I believe) mistaken notions, reserving some interesting modern theories for later treatment. I must here, however, avow my belief that before starting to lay down principles of literature or aesthetic a man should offer some evidence of his capacity to enjoy the better and eschew the worse. The claim, for the moment fashionable, that a general philosophy of aesthetic can be constructed by a thinker who, iii English 29 My 19 Stechert 209 420623 |