composition is often disproportioned to the merit of the work; and the
public sometimes, nor unjustly, avenges itself for that forgetfulness of
its existence which makes the chief charm of an author's solitude,--and
the happiest, if not the wisest, inspiration of his dreams.



PREFACE.

WITH the younger class of my readers this work has had the good fortune
to find especial favour; perhaps because it is in itself a collection of
the thoughts and sentiments that constitute the Romance of youth. It has
little to do with the positive truths of our actual life, and does not
pretend to deal with the larger passions and more stirring interests of
our kind. It is but an episode out of the graver epic of human
destinies. It requires no explanation of its purpose, and no analysis of
its story; the one is evident, the other simple,--the first seeks but to
illustrate visible nature through the poetry of the affections; the other
is but the narrative of the most real of mortal sorrows, which the Author
attempts to take out of the region of pain by various accessories from
the Ideal. The connecting tale itself is but the string that binds into
a garland the wild-flowers cast upon a grave.

The descriptions of the Rhine have been considered by Germans
sufficiently faithful to render this tribute to their land and their
legends one of the popular guide-books along the course it
illustrates,--especially to such tourists as wish not only to take in
with the eye the inventory of the river, but to seize the peculiar spirit
which invests the wave and the bank with a beauty that can only be made
visible by reflection. He little comprehends the true charm of the Rhine