PREFACE.

THIS volume is the fourth of my works constituting a Course of English Literature, viz. :

I. A Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors, Living and Deceased, from the Earliest Accounts to the Latter Part of the Nineteenth Century, containing over Forty-six Thousand [46,499] Articles (Authors); with Forty Indexes of Subjects. Royal 8vo, 3 vols., pp. 3139. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1858-70-71.

II. Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson, with Copious Indexes. Authors, 550; Subjects, 435; Quotations, 13,600. 8vo, pp. xiv. 788. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1873.

III. Prose Quotations from Socrates to Macaulay, with Indexes. Authors, 544; Subjects, 571; Quotations, 8810. 8vo. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1876.

IV. Great Authors of all Ages: Being Selections from the Prose Works of Eminent Writers from the Time of Pericles to the Present Day. With Indexes. 8vo. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1880.

It is difficult for an author to say anything of his works which does not savour of ostentation, or, at least, of egotism; and therefore I prefer to say nothing.

NEW YORK, October 23, 1879.

S. AUSTIN ALLIBONE.

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