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PROSE MASTERPIECES

FROM

MODERN ESSAYISTS.

IRVING, LEIGH HUNT, LAMB, DE QUINCEY, LANDOR, SYDNEY
SMITH, THACKERAY, EMERSON, MATTHEW ARNOLD,

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EDITOR'S PREFACE

TH

HE purpose of this selection of the Modern Essayists is indicated by the title. It has been the intention of the editor 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.

It has also been part of the plan to group the papers, as far as practicable, according to the connection of their subjects or the closeness of their authors' intellectual kinship. Thus the reader has an opportunity of comparing the thoughts of Irving and Leigh Hunt on literature, and of Lamb and De Quincey on social intercourse. He can consider together the different theories of history and historic methods of three such authorities as Carlyle, Macaulay, and Froude; he can compare the

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