EDWARD DOWDEN D.LITT., LL.D. (DUB.), D.C.L. (OXON.), LL.D. (EDIN.) LL.D. (PRINCETON) PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN French prose and French poetry had interested me during so many years that when Mr. Gosse invited me to write this book I knew that I was qualified in one particular--the love of my subject. Qualified in knowledge I was not, and could not be. No one can pretend to know the whole of a vast literature. He may have opened many books and turned many pages; he cannot have penetrated to the soul of all books from the _Song of Roland_ to _Toute la Lyre_. Without reaching its spirit, to read a book is little more than to amuse the eye with printed type.…
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