ally make it ruler over them,--yes, he were the living epitome
of all Editors, Teachers, Prophets, that now teach and prophesy; he
were an _Apollo_-Morrison, a Trismegistus and _effective_ Cassandra!
Let no Able Editor hope such things. It is to be expected the present
laws of copyright, rate of reward per sheet, and other considerations,
will save him from that peril. Let no Editor hope such things:
no;--and yet let all Editors aim towards such things, and even towards
such alone! One knows not what the meaning of editing and writing is,
if even this be not it.

Enough, to the present Editor it has seemed possible some glimmering
of light, for here and there a human soul, might lie in these confused
Paper-Masses now intrusted to him; wherefore he determines to edit the
same. Out of old Books, new Writings, and much Meditation not of
yesterday, he will endeavour to select a thing or two; and from the
Past, in a circuitous way, illustrate the Present and the Future. The
Past is a dim indubitable fact: the Future too is one, only dimmer;
nay properly it is the _same_ fact in new dress and development. For
the Present holds it in both the whole Past and the whole Future;--as
the Life-tree Igdrasil, wide-waving, many-toned, has its roots down
deep in the Death-kingdoms, among the oldest dead dust of men, and
with its boughs reaches always beyond the stars; and in all times and
places is one and the same Life-tree!

FOOTNOTES:

[2] Tennyson's _Poems_ (Ulysses).

BOOK II.

THE ANCIENT MONK.

CHAPTER I.

JOCELIN OF BRAKELOND.

We will, in this Second Portion of our Work, strive to penetrate a
little, by means of certain confused Papers, printed and other, into a
somewhat remote Century; and to look face to face on it, in hope of
perhaps illustrating our own poor Century thereby. It seems a
circuitous way; but it may prove a way nevertheless. For man has ever
been a striving, struggling, and, in spite of wide-spread calumnies to
the contrary, a veracious creature: the Centuries too are all lineal
children of one another; and often, in the portrait of early
grandfathers, this and the other enigmatic feature of the newest
grandson shall disclose itself, to mutual elucidation. This Editor
will venture on such a thing.

Besides, in Editors' Books, and indeed everywhere else in the world of
Today, a certain latitude of movement grows more and more becoming for
the practical man. Salvation lies not in tight