Excerpt from Men, Women, and Books: A Selection of Sketches, Essays, and Critical Memoirs, From His Uncollected Prose Writings The title of this book, though a peculiar, is not a forced one. The reader will see that Women, ' upon their own grounds, form an essential portion of its contents; and the word suggested itself as soon as the book was thought of. The name of the heroine might almost as well have been omitted, when a critic was giving an account of the history of Angelica. And Medoro.
Should anything else in the impulsive portions of those essays which were written when he was young, appear a little out Of the pale of recognised manners, in point of style and animal spirits, the new reader will be good enough to understand, what old ones have long been aware of, and grown kind to, - namely, that the writer comes of a tropical race and that what might have been afl'ectation in a colder blood, was only enthusiasm in a warm one. He is not conscious, however, of having suffered anything to remain, to which a reasonable critic could object. He has pruned a few passages, in order that he might not seem to take undue advantage of an extempore or anonymous allowance; and in later years, particularly when seated on the critical bench, he has been pleased, and perhaps profited, in con forming himself to the customs of 'the court.' But had he attempted to alter the general spirit of his writings, he would have belied the love of truth that is in him, an even shown himself ungrateful to public warrant.
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