reader. It includes the titles of only the most notable complete editions, of the most satisfactory inexpensive editions of the essays or of selections from them, and of a small number of studies which contain pertinent and valuable information on the development of the type or on the individual essayists, or which will be of definite assistance to the reader who desires fuller information than he can obtain from the necessarily compacted introduction and notes of this volume. Throughout this work both editors have collaborated closely, and both are equally responsible for selection and arrangement; but each acknowledges a more definite accountability for certain sections. The preparation of the text for the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries, with the accompanying notes and the corresponding section of the introduction, is the work of Dr. Crane; for the material of the nineteenth century Dr. Bryan is similarly responsible. The editors desire to acknowledge gratefully their obligations to Charles Scribner's Sons for permission to reprint Stevenson's "The Lantern Bearers," and to the Newberry Library and the libraries of Harvard University and of Northwestern University for services that have made the work possible. To their former colleague, Mr. Herbert K. Stone, now of the University of Illinois, and to their present colleagues and friends, Professor Keith Preston, Messrs. George B. Denton, J. B. McKinney, and Arthur H. Nethercot, they desire also to express their appreciation of assistance generously given. Almost every page of the introduction owes something to Mr. Denton's keen and thoughtful criticism. EVANSTON, ILLINOIS W. F. B. CONTENTS1 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH FAMILIAR ESSAY I. Montaigne and the Beginnings of the Essay in England III. The New Magazine Essay of the Nineteenth Century MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE The Author to the Reader Of Sorrow Of Repentance SIR FRANCIS BACON Of Studies PAGE xi xxiv xli I 2 5 Of Empire Of Truth Of Death Of Adversity Of Envy Of Travel Of Friendship Of Plantations Of Gardens ABRAHAM COWLEY The Dangers of an Honest Man in Much Company SEVENTEENTH CENTURY CHARACTERS 22 24 30 32 34 35 39 42 48 51 58 63 1 Titles of essays in brackets have been supplied by the editors. |