PREFACE. THE following studies were prepared for a class of working men, with the sole aim of rousing their interest in, and provoking them to a study of, our nineteenth century poets. They were reported in the provincial press at the time of their delivery, and therefrom I have endeavoured to throw them into volume form. No material alteration has been made in either style or setting, as I am anxious they should still appeal to a wider section of the same community for whom they were originally prepared. J. MARSHALL MATHER |