35 By the same Author. The AUTUMN HOLIDAYS of a COUNTRY PARSON. The RECREATIONS of a COUNTRY PARSON. FIRST SERIES. The RECREATIONS of a COUNTRY PARSON. SECOND SERIES. LEISURE HOURS in TOWN. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. The COMMONPLACE PHILOSOPHER in TOWN and COUNTRY. The GRAVER THOUGHTS of a COUNTRY PARSON. FIRST COUNSEL. and COMFORT SPOKEN from a CITY PULPIT. The GRAVER THOUGHTS of a COUNTRY PARSON. SECOND SUNDAY AFTERNOONS at the PARISH CHURCH of a UNI- PREFACE. IN N literature, unlike law, a man frequently begins by judging others, before he tries to do anything for himself. He begins by being a judge: and if he be tolerably successful as a judge, he is advanced (so to speak) to practise at the bar. A young and inexperienced writer in a magazine is for the most part set to review books writter generally by much older and wiser men than himself. If he do this tolerably well, he is by and by advanced to the writing of original articles. It was so with me. When I began to write for Fraser's Magazine, a little more than nine years ago, my work was mainly to review books. Gradually, my dear friend the Editor thought I might try to walk alone. And in several volumes, which the public has received with much kindness and favour, the original essays, which I began to write at his suggestion, have been collected and republished. The present volume. contains a selection from the critical essays of earlier years. These were written in the quiet and leisure of a country parish. They were founded on a thorough examination of the books they attempt to estimate; and they all express what was the writer's honest opinion, unbiassed by any kind of influence. It would have been easy to select smarter essays; but after a few years one looks back with little pleasure on ill-natured writing. Anything of that kind has been excluded from this volume. A. K. H. B. March 13, 1865.. |