Excerpt from Forty Years On TO those who may raise the Objection that the title of this book is not quite in keeping with the heading Of the opening chapter, I would merely Observe that the title is meant to strike a polite average between the first and last post of observa tion, and is therefore not the cowardly evasion that it might at first sight appear. I may add, in further explanation, that it is intended to be a quotation from the last verse of the famous song, and not the first verse - a distinction which many will appreciate. In the last verse the singer claims one gain as against several losses, but sighs in doing it, as well he may; for, though length of memory in another may have some value for the general public, it must always be but a shaky compensation to the possessor for the shortness Of wind which buys it. Nevertheless, the long winded and the short-memoried may be glad to read Of the be-haloed days of yore, when Plancus was Consul and the grass grew green on the top of the hill; while the short-winded and the long memoried may not be sorry to conjure up once more visions Of forms and features which were once familiar but which have long since passed on ahead. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.