PREFACE THE present edition of Bacon's Essays has been prepared in the hope that the young students in whose hands it is placed may quickly come to feel the charm of these frank commentaries upon life and its problems, and to recognize, with Emerson that, despite his limitations, Bacon "marks the influx. of idealism into England. Where that goes is poetry, health and progress." The editor desires to express his sense of indebtedness, for many valuable suggestions, to the standard editions of the Essays, particularly those of Dr. Wright, Dr. Abbott, Mr. Reynolds, Mr. Selby, and Mr. Anderson, and also to the faithful labours of Bacon's chief biographers, named in the Bibliography. G. H. C. |