BY
GEORGE SAINTSBURY
PERCIVAL AND CO.
KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN
London
1890
Of the essays in this volume, the introductory paper on "The Kinds ofCriticism" has not before appeared in print. All the rest, with oneexception (the Essay on Lockhart which appeared in the NationalReview), were originally published in Macmillan's Magazine. To theEditors and Publishers of both these periodicals I owe my best thanksfor permission to reprint the articles. To the Editor of Macmillan'sMagazine in particular (to whom, if dedications were not somewhat inill odour, I should, in memory of friendship old and new, have dedicatedthe book), I am further indebted for suggesting several of the subjectsas well as accepting the essays. These appear in the main as theyappeared;{vi} but I have not scrupled to alter phrase or substance where itseemed desirable, and I have in a few places restored passages which hadbeen sacrificed to the usual exigencies of space. In two cases, those ofLockhart and De Quincey, I have thought it best to discuss, in a briefappendix, some questions which have presented themselves since theoriginal publications. In consequence of these alterations and additionsas well as for other reasons, it may be convenient to give the dates andplaces of the original appearance of each essay. They are as follows:—
Lockhart, National Review, Aug. 1884. Borrow, Macmillan'sMagazine, Jan. 1886. Peacock, do. April 1886. Wilson (under thetitle of "Christopher North"), do. July 1886. Hazlitt, do. March1887. Jeffrey, do. August 1887. Moore, do. March 1888. SydneySmith, do. May 1888. Praed, do. Sept. 1888. Leigh Hunt, do. April1889. Crabbe, do. June 1889. Hogg, do. Sept. 1889. De Quincey,do. June 1890.
The present order is chronological, following the birth-years of theauthors discussed.