ideas of the
characteristics and power of all the measures in use in English
versification.

That the book may prove useful to the reader, is the earnest wish of the
author!

* * * * *

LOVINGLY DEDICATED TO EUGENE B. COOK.

When the busy little sailor bird builds himself a nest in which he--with
his mate and their tiny brood--may swing secure through the sudden
storms of fitful springs, and find shelter from the heats of summer,
sewing it so tightly together that the rain cannot permeate it, nor the
wild winds waft away the light beams and rafters of the swinging home,
we do not quarrel with the little architect because he has industriously
gleaned such materials as were needed for his purpose, because he has
torn his leaves from the great forest book of nature. The leaves are
freely given by God, and the little builder has a natural right to play
the artist with them, if he can succeed in forming them into a _new
whole_, fitted for the maintenance of a higher order of life. Thus the
thoughts of great men are the common heritage of humanity.

Or, when we eat of the fragrant honey, we do not quarrel with the thymy
bees because they have blended for us the sweets of Hybla. The flowers
from which they were drawn are lovely and perfumed as before, but the
workers have made from them a _new whole_, in which the pilfered sweets
have gained a higher value from their perfect union. Those who prefer
the dewy juice as it exists in the plant, may use their own powers to
extract it, for the bee has not injured the flowers, and they may still
be found blooming in the keen mountain air; but let those who may not
scale the heights, nor work the strange transmutation, who yet love the
fragrant honey, eat--blessing the little artist for his waxen cells and
winged labor.

Who would quarrel with a friend because he had roamed through many a
clime to find flowers for a wreath woven for our pleasure? Virgin Lilies
from the still lakes of Wordsworth, Evergreens from the labyrinthine
forests of Schlegel, Palm from the holy hills of Tissandier, Amaranth
with the breath of angels fresh upon it from the Paradise groves of
Ruskin, interwoven with Passion Flowers and Anemones of his own
wilds,--shall we not acknowledge our wreath as a new whole, seeing that
the isolated fractions are raised to a higher power in becoming
essential parts of a new unity?

Eugene, the wreath of Lilies, Evergreen, Palm, and Amar