The reader is referred to the general prospectus of the series for the plan of the entire work. Among the volumes now near completion are The Great English Essayists, The Great English Historians, and The Great English Nature-Lovers. The method adopted in the present

volumes will be pursued in all succeeding volumes.

It will be noticed, no doubt, that some letter-writers of great eminence are not as adequately represented as could be wished. The reason for this inadequate representation is found in the difficulties which are involved in copyright matter. The gratitude of the editors is due, and is hereby expressed, to many publishers and authors, who have generously granted a very liberal use of copyright material. In some instances, however, the use of such material has been strictly limited.

Every care has been taken to discover the holders of copyright, and to print nothing without express permission. In some cases, however, the editors have been unable to trace the owner. Should any letter be found in these volumes for which permission should have been gained, the editors beg to state that the error is not wilful, and they offer their apologies to the undiscovered owners of the copyright.

To the following publishers and authors, who have extended their courtesy to the Editors, by allowing the use of copyright material contained in these two volumes, a word of grateful acknowledgment is due:-To Messrs. G. P. Putnam's Sons for Mr. and Mrs. Borrow's letter, from Professor Knapp's Life of Borrow, copyright 1899; to Messrs. Dodd, Mead & Company for the correspondence of Charlotte Brontë, from Mr. Clement K. Shorter's The Brontës and Their Circle, copyright 1896; to Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Company for the letters of Elizabeth and Robert Browning, from Mrs. Sutherland Orr's

Life and Letters of Robert Browning; to the John Lane Company for the two letters of Jane Welsh Carlyle, from New Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle, edited by Mr. Alexander Carlyle, copyright 1903; to Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons for the letters of Jane Welsh and Thomas Carlyle, from Thomas Carlyle: A History of His Life in London, 1834-1881, by J. A. Froude, and from Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle; to the John Lane Company for Carlyle's letter to Mrs. Aitken, March 11th, 1869; to Mr. Charles Eliot Norton for Carlyle's letter to Dr. Carlyle, June, 1834, from Letters of Thomas Carlyle, 1826-1836, copyright 1888; to Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons for letters from Thomas Carlyle: A History of the First Forty Years of His Life, 1795-1835, by J. A. Froude; to Messrs. D. Appleton & Company for letters of Charles Dickens, from The Life of Charles Dickens, by John Forster; to Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons for letters of Charles Dickens, from The Letters of Charles Dickens, edited by his sister-in-law and his eldest daughter, also for those from A Collection of Letters of Charles Dickens; to Messrs. Harper & Brothers for those from Letters of Charles Dickens to Wilkie Collins, edited by Laurence Hutton, copyright 1891; to Messrs. Harper & Brothers for George Eliot's letter, from George Eliot's Life as Related in Her Letters and Journal; to Messrs. Thomas Crowell & Company for selections from Mr. Buxton Forman's Letters of John Keats; to Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons for selections from Letters of Sidney Lanier, copyright 1899; to the Century Company for the letters of Abraham Lincoln, from The Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, edited by John G. Nicolay and John Hay, copyright 1890; to Messrs. Harper & Brothers for the letters of Lord Macaulay, from Macaulay's Life and Letters, edited by the Right. Hon. Sir George Otto Trevelyan, copyright 1875; to Messrs.

Charles Scribner's Sons for selections from Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, edited by Mr. Sidney Colvin, copyright 1899; to Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons for the correspondence of Thackeray, from A Collection of Letters of Thackeray, 1847-1855, copyright 1887.