as I ought, but at least I carried away one literary maxim which I hope never to forget. You made me realise that the essential thing in writing is to be intelligible, and that it is perfectly useless to write what cannot be clearly and immediately understood. That, after all, is the golden rule of letters. But though the teaching of this simple secret demands an acknowledgment, it is not the real reason why I dedicate this book to you. That reason lies in the hearts of your children, and will be clear to all who know you. To say more would be to say more than enough. I therefore only ask you again to take my book.

Your affectionate Son,

J. ST. LOE STRACHEY.

INTRODUCTION

THE Introduction has died a natural death in many, nay, in most forms of literature. It is, however, still considered imperative when essays and other occasional papers are collected and republished. The reason seems to be that something is required to justify the act of saving from oblivion anything not first published between Boards. Especially and beyond other men is the Journalist expected to show his passport and give an account of his motives and intentions when he tries to enter the land of books. He is 'suspect' in literature, and must allege some excuse for not being content with that station in life to which it has pleased Providence to call him. The position, in fact, is like that of a humble labourer a hundred years ago who wished to leave the village and see the world.

No one, perhaps, could legally prevent him, but he was expected before he took such a step at the very least to explain his reasons to the Squire.

I cannot, of course, claim to be allowed to break the custom, and so must give my apology for this volume

in an Introduction. But, though I am only a Journalist, I expect that my real reason for coming before the public with a book of previously printed matter is very much like that of regular authors. I want to try my luck like the rest, and to see whether I cannot get a certain number of readers to agree with me on the topics I have chosen. I shall be specially pleased if I can do so in the essays I have called 'The Puritans,' for there I have tried to show that the Puritans were not the harsh, dull sectaries they are so often described, but, in their truest and worthiest representatives, men inspired with the love of beauty in literature and art, and, above all, men of the noblest and widest patriotism. This is, of course, no new discovery, but only a partly obscured fact. If, however, I can help to make it more fully visible, and to induce men to realise that the Puritan element is one which is absolutely essential to the national well-being, I shall have done what I have tried to do. And here I may mention that, though the greater portion of these Puritan studies have appeared in the Spectator,' they have been remodelled, rearranged, and in many places rewritten. The rest of the studies in the present volume have been somewhat less altered, but even in their case there is not one which has not undergone a process of revision.

When I have stated these facts, thanked my chiefs on the Spectator' for their kindness in allowing me to reprint from their pages, and have said again that I

reprint these essays in the hope that somebody may care to read them, and, if they read, may be made to think or to smile, I have said all I have to say. I will only add a word of excuse addressed to any critics who may object to this or that essay, or batch of essays, being included, and reprove me accordingly. That there will be such critics I cannot doubt, for I have been a reviewer myself. Let me ask the man who scolds me for including too much to remember what I have excluded. When he realises that I have spared him two essays on the Referendum, one on the Canadian Constitution, and another on the duties of the Privy Council, he will surely feel towards me far more of gratitude than of indignation.