HALF-HOURS WITHI OUR SACRED POETS. EDITED, WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, BY ALEXANDER H. GRANT, M.A. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY H. S. MARKS. LONDON: JAMES HOGG AND SONS. 280. c. 200 PREFACE. In this volume no classification of subjects has been attempted; the only arrangement is that which chronology has already decided. This most simple and natural method is the best calculated at once to offer variety of topic and to exhibit the various development of the national mind and language, and the successive habits of thought and feeling. The succession of authors has been generally determined by the mean date of their period of poetical production: a succession determined by the time of birth alone would, although the example of competent collectors might be quoted in its favour, be manifestly inadequate. It is believed that some names of poets who are now not so much unpopular as lapsed from popularity, will for the first time be presented to the general reader; while the absence may be remarked of some names of living poets, who have been passed over, on the one hand because their claims to inclusion are not imperative, and on the other because their works are readily available, and are also being periodically brought before the notice of the public. In this the Editor has been careful to carry out the plan of presenting, in cases of |