Chosen and edited by Sir Arthar Anthologies of prose' are, _perhaps, most naturally private affairs, the Feereation of a booklover_jotting down in a commonplace book Passages which specially delight him. When such passages are chosen for one, even if one does not quarrel with the editor's choice, one is apt to wish for so much ore than one is given, that there is a frequent danger of irritation. Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch shows Kis preface that he is fully aware of the difficulty of selecting representative pieces of prose, in ¢ontrast with verse, complete in itself, even when the piece chosen is but one scene from an epic. And there is this further share.
Sir Arthur quotes Mr. Dutton Drock's dictum that "while the cardinal virtue of Verse is Love, the cardinal virtue of Prose Iestice."" Of this Sir Arthur thinks it would be better to say "a high compelling emotion" of verse and Fersuasion, rather than justice, of prose:
But persuasion, (he adds) whether in narrative From this. the' Devil's foes on. to. say, Prose, being, what
thors the purple patch. You alow' ithe, om that a emitted many purple patcher. Please You, Justify yoursel this T might patcher in fe la" come tents" Y "have. very sedulously "me sluded all sorts of our prose, choos ing often a passage quite pedestrian. course there are "purple patch-they would be inevitable and the book none the worse for that.
And in spite of all inherent di ficulties it is a delightful volume, ranging from John Trevisa (A.D.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.