works of a single author, and to the proper study of a single period."

He need not have feared that his connected sketches of "English Lands,
Letters and Kings" would be any less welcome because they do not pretend
to fill up all the details or cover all the incidents they hint in vivid
outline. How many of us ever read or ever will read Drayton's
"Poly-Olbion?" Twenty thousand long Alexandrines are filled with
admirable descriptions of scenery, natural productions, and historical
events, but how many of us in these days have time to read and inwardly
digest twenty thousand Alexandrine verses? I fear that the specialist is
apt to hold his intelligent reader or hearer too cheap. So far as I have
observed in medical specialties, what he knows in addition to the
knowledge of the well-taught general practitioner is very largely curious
rather than important. Having exhausted all that is practical, the
specialist is naturally tempted to amuse himself with the natural history
of the organ or function he deals with; to feel as a writing-master does
when he sets a copy,--not content to shape the letters properly, but he
must add flourishes and fancy figures, to let off his spare energy.

I am beginning to be frightened. When I began these papers, my idea was
a very simple and innocent one. Here was a mixed company, of various
conditions, as I have already told my readers, who came together
regularly, and before they were aware of it formed something like a club
or association. As I was the patriarch among them, they gave me the name
some of you may need to be reminded of; for as these reports are
published at intervals, you may not remember the fact that I am what The
Teacups have seen fit to call The Dictator.

Now, what did I expect when I began these papers, and what is it that has
begun to frighten me?