Euphues of Lilly, that long served as the text-book of polite language, was at once cause and effect); and, on the other, the Latin pedantry of the schools. But, principally, the universal maintenance of Latin, as the medium of intercourse among scholars, checked and fettered the use of the vernacular idioms. The one remarkable exception to the prevailing conventional formalism are the Letters of Howell (1616-1660). So modern an air have they, as compared with those of his contemporaries, that, but for evidence to the contrary, his earlier ones might be suspected to be forgeries by a later hand. In the second half of the Century, as reverence for authority decreased, and the national languages came into greater cultivation and repute, Letter-Writing began to throw off the fetters imposed upon it; and it assumed an ease and freedom scarcely known before. If English Letter-Writing of that period, in peculiar graces of style-owed still more to the genius of the language than to that of the individual-does not boast a Mde. de Sévigné, or even a Balzac, yet the letters of Lady Rachel Russell, or of Locke, in point of style may claim some merit; while, in the expression of thought or feeling, they far excel the trifling and vapid matter of Balzac and his School. With the Eighteenth Century and with Swift, from whom the Art (if, in his hands, it can be called an Art) in England received a new ease and vigour, may be said to begin the English classical letter-writers. Few words are necessary to explain the plan and scope of the present volume, which will be followed by others, completing the series. 1.-No Letters have been included, which have not seemed to possess for the ordinary reader some especial interest, whether biographic, social, literary, or historic. 2.-A biographical sketch of each Letter-Writer, as comprehensive and, at the same time, as concise as possible, forming a summary of the most interesting or important facts of his life, with illustrative extracts from his principal public writings, has been prefixed. Without such introduction, for the greater number of readers the interest, and even the intelligibility, of his epistolary remains is considerably lessened. 3.-Explanatory and illustrative Notes (including extracts from the letters of correspondents), wherever they have seemed to be necessary or useful for elucidating the text, have been freely supplied. 4-A full and complete Index appears at the end of each volum.c. If the best letters of the Masters of the Art form one of the most entertaining kinds of lighter literature, that commonplace productions of the species offer one of the dullest and least edifying sorts of reading is equally true. The Collections of many of the most celebrated contributors to this popular kind of writing illustrate the truth with sufficient force; and in no department of literature, perhaps, can the principle of selection be more conveniently or advantageously applied. In the cases of some of the more voluminous-of Pope, of Chesterfield, in particular, -the applicability of the principle is especially apparent, a fact which, probably, will be recognised by most persons who have been at the pains of exploring the entire mass of their published letters. Care has been taken in ascertaining, as far as possible, the genuine text of the Letters of Pope. The ordinary Collections, published before the minute researches of his more recent critics and editors, have become, to a considerable extent, of little value, in respect of their chronology and addresses, as well as in relative significance. But, in fact, of a large proportion of the whole body of them the interest for any but the biographer is slight. It is intended to include in the Series only the most eminent Letter-Writers, with two or three of the most distinguished names in English Literature, whose Letters possess especial interest, derived as well from the matter as from the fame of the writer. The Series, when completed, will exhibit, it is believed, a varied and lively picture of the Eighteenth Century life, manners, literature, politics, and society generally-as they appeared to some of its most distinguished representatives in English Letters or Society-such as rarely has been displayed in the same limit of space. It remains to add that the publication of the present volume has been unavoidably delayed, the plan of the work having been formed, and the larger part of the matter having been arranged, four years ago. December, 1885. An extraordinary interest in the life and productions of Swift |