PREFACE. The title of this publication is chosen less for appropriateness than for originality. Poetical selections, as various in talent as in name, have been so multiplied of late, that we have been at no small pains to discover an appellation sufficiently distinctive for our purpose. It is for this reason that we have a certain pleasant melancholy upon our brow, and not because we have banished our readers into the wild waste, far from the strife and turmoil of congregated thousands and the populous city; on the contrary, wherever man hath tabernacled or nature dwelt, there, with a joyous gladness have we followed the leadings of the Muse :—we have tracked her from sea to sea and from shore to shore; the Old and the New Worlds have alike furnished contributions; and wherever her gifts have been most prodigally dispensed, have we put in our sickle and gathered in the harvest : INDEX OF SUBJECTS. Page. Proctor 37 Mrs. Hemans 49 Wordsworth 82 Wilson 85 Heber 95 L. E. Landon 129 Wilson 176 Shelley 188 I. Fitzadam 309 Bryant 342 . Bright Thoughts for Dark .R. F. Housman 36 Southey 58 Byron 109 Campbell 181 Page. L. E. Landon 98 162 Mrs. Hemans 172 Bowles 235 .J. G. Percival 338 . Dirge . W. Howitt 32 Byron 174 Eclipse of the Sun Wordsworth 111 . Flowers for Mary's Garland . Anonymous 134 Byron 223 300 .Rev.J.Moultrie 346 I am come back to my Bower Miss Jewsbury 31 Moore 200 Miss Sheridan 241 Rev.J.Moultrie 313 |