WORKS OF EDMUND J. ARMSTRONG. THE POETICAL WORKS OF EDMUND J. ARMSTRONG. Edited by GEORGE FRANCIS ARMSTRONG. A New Edition, containing many Poems not before published. Fcap. 8vo. With Portrait on Steel by C. H. JEENS, and Vignette. Price 5s. "His young star will continue to shine before the eyes of all who study English poetry."-Sainte-Beuve. ESSAYS AND SKETCHES OF EDMUND J. ARMSTRONG. Edited by GEORGE FRANCIS ARMSTRONG. Fcap. 8vo. Price 5s. THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF EDMUND J. ARMSTRONG. Edited by GEORGE FRANCIS ARMSTRONG. Fcap. 8vo. With Portrait and Vignette. Price 7s. 6d. LONGMANS AND CO Presented to the literary of Edhi brale ESSAYS AND SKETCHES OF 7.5094 March 1945 EDMUND J. ARMSTRONG. EDITED BY GEORGE FRANCIS ARMSTRONG. LONDON: LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 1877. [All rights reserved.] I EDITOR'S PREFACE. COLLECT these essays and fragments of prose writing, and present them here in print, first, that I myself and the dearest and nearest friends and associates of the Writer may possess them in a durable and accessible shape; and, next, that all others who can admire in them what of his mind and character they reveal, or can at least derive pleasure from sympathy with the intellectual activity of youth, may know them and enjoy them. I had intended that the collection should form a portion of the volume containing the Author's Life and Letters, of which it is the natural complement, and in connection with which it is my hope that it may be read; but, the latter volume having swelled to unexpected proportions, I publish it, as a matter of convenience, in a separate book. Few of these prose-pieces were ever meant thus to see the light. One only-that on Essayists and Essay-Writing-was printed during the Author's lifetime; two or three had been circulated in MS., a good deal, before his death; two or three had been read publicly in the University society of which he was President; some are the written perorations, or notes, of speeches; and some are but sketches and fragments thrown off as the mood prompted, never shown to any of his friends, and now culled from his note-books for the first time. The paper on Essayists and Essay- Writing constitutes the main portion of an Address delivered by the Author as President of the Philosophical Society of Dublin University, in November, 1864. Those who are acquainted with the Address in its original pamphlet-form, will miss here its few opening pages. I have thought, that as these had an interest purely local and occasional, and were in no way connected with the cardinal subject, the essay would perhaps appeal to a wider audience if they were omitted in this place; and on this consideration I have discarded them, even at the risk of robbing the Address of considerable eloquence and point. One or two sketches-such as that headed A Prophecy-though trifles in themselves, long forgotten by the Author, I have deemed it needful to preserve, as illustrating certain portions of the Memoirs, and elucidating certain references in the extracts from his Diaries therein contained. The essay on Shelley, written for the most part when the Author was about nineteen years of age, has a very intimate association with important passages of |