LESSONS FROM MY MASTERS, CARLYLE, TENNYSON, AND RUSKIN. BY PETER BAYNE, M.A., LL.D., Author of "The Chief Actors in the Puritan Revolution," BISLIL THE CA JUL 1879 BODLEIANA London: JAMES CLARKE & CO., 13 & 14, FLEET STREET. PREFATORY NOTE. HEN I began a series of Studies of English Authors WE in the Literary World, of which the first three were devoted to Carlyle, Tennyson, and Ruskin, I stated that it was my intention not to sit in judgment upon them, not to rise from the pleasant place of listener and learner at their feet and assume that of critical censor, but to give such information as might be of use to persons less familiar with their books than myself, and to rehearse, in brief and simple terms, a few of the principal truths they had expounded, facts they had stated, lessons they had taught. In writing I found it practically impossible to divest myself of the critical function so completely as I had purposed. When I differed in opinion from the eminent men whose works I surveyed, I could not help saying so; and to say so without reason assigned would have seemed unjustifiable assumption. It will, however, I trust, be found that I have in no instance controverted an opinion of "my very noble and approved good masters" without its being evident that my respect and affection for them |