PREFACE. THE present volume has been prepared for the purpose more particularly of meeting the requirements of students and teachers who were not in a position to use advantageously the full series of Essays presented in the set of "Prose Masterpieces from the Modern Essayists." The purpose of the "Prose Masterpieces" was stated by the editor to be, to bring together such productions of the great modern writers of English prose as should not only present good specimens of English style, but should also be fairly characteristic of the methods of thought and manner of expression of the several writers. The present selection comprises twelve out of the twenty papers given in the original set, those contributions having been omitted which seemed less likely to prove of interest for younger readers. As in the larger series, only complete essays are given, in which the thoughts and arguments of the writers on the several subjects considered, find their full expression. The editor believes that the selections presented, can safely be recommended to students as specimens of effective literary expression and of finished literary style. G. H. P. CONTENTS. PAGE IMPERFECT SYMPATHIES. BY CHARLES LAMB CONVERSATION. BY THOMAS DE QUINCEY COMPENSATION. BY RALPH WALDO EMERSON SWEETNESS AND LIGHT. BY MATTHEW ARNOLD ON POPULAR CULTURE. BY JOHN MORLEY THE MUTABILITY OF LITERATURE. A COLLOQUY IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. BY WASHINGTON IRVING. (BORN 1783, DIED 1859.) I know that all beneath the moon decays, That there is nothing lighter than mere praise. DRUMMOND OF HAWTHORNDEN. HERE are certain half-dreaming moods of mind, in which we naturally steal away from noise and glare, and seek some quiet haunt, where we may indulge our reveries and build our air-castles undisturbed. In such a mood I was loitering about the old gray cloisters of Westminster Abbey, enjoying that luxury of wandering thought which one is apt to dignify with the name of reflection; when suddenly an interruption of madcap boys from Westminster School, playing at football, broke in upon the monastic stillness of the place, making the vaulted passages and mouldering tombs echo with their merriment. I sought to take refuge from their noise by penetrating still deeper into the solitudes of the pile, and I |