PREFACE THIS Volume will, I hope, be found to contain nearly all the genuine poetry in our language fitted to please children,-of and from the age at which they have usually learned to read, in common with grown people. A collection of this sort has, I believe, never before been made, although its utility seems clear. The test applied, in every instance, in the work of selection, has been that of having actually pleased intelligent children; and my object has been to make a book which shall be to them no more nor less than a book of equally good poetry is to intelligent grown persons. The charm of such a book to the latter class of readers is rather increased than lessened by the surmised existence in it of an unknown amount of power, meaning and beauty, beyond that which is at once to be seen; and children will not like this volume the less because, though it contains little or nothing which will not at once please and b |