IT was the known intention of Bayard Taylor to pre-
pare the material which composes the following work
for publication. A partial arrangement for that pur-
pose had been made between him and the present pub-
lishers. Had he lived to complete his plan, doubtless
the form of the matter would have been changed, by
adapting it to the reader rather than the hearer, and
the scope of the whole work would have been enlarged
and, here and there, elaborated, so as to complete a
design which was necessarily restricted by the brief
limits of time prescribed to a course of lectures.

However much additional interest might have been
given to the work, had Taylor lived to carry out his
purpose, the editors felt themselves to be unauthorized
to attempt changes so serious, which might have left
upon the volume the impress of their literary style and
opinions rather than those of the actual author. Noth-
ing beyond the corrections of verbal errors and of over-

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