Recent Volumes of Essays in the Olive Series.

In fcap. 8vo., olive cloth, price 3s. 6d. AMENITIES OF SOCIAL LIFE. EDWARD Bennett.

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In fcap. 8vo., tastefully printed and bound in cloth, price 5s. post free.

QUEST AND VISION. Essays in Life and Literature. By W. J. DAWSON, Author of "A Vision of Souls, with other Ballads and Poems."

"We welcome these interpretations of poets by a poet... he speaks with the authority of native right of the race to which he properly belongs."

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Literary World.

EDWARD BUTLER.

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"An exceedingly pleasant, readable, and suggestive volume of essays. The style is clear, strong, and simple.' "-Manchester Examiner.

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Now ready, in fcap. 8vo., cloth, price 3s. 6d. FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION. EDWARD BUTLER. Being Studies of Christian Life and Character in the "Idylls of the King," and other Essays.

In fcap. 8vo., cloth, tastefully printed, 5s. post free. WORK-A-DAY THOUGHTS.

ANDER CARgill.

By ALEX

"All written with judgment and taste. A pleasantly suggestive book."-Ecclesiastical Gazette.

LONDON:

ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER Row.

PREFACE.

IN presenting this small volume to the public the author wishes it to be clearly understood that it is not his intention to deal in a comprehensive manner with such an inexhaustible subject as the history of literature. Neither personal biography nor lengthy criticism is attempted in the following pages. It is rather the purpose of this work to prove that the practical events of the world