the case may be. I can only say that, so far as I am aware, I have overlooked no conspicuous lyric which entirely answered my requirements, nor have I admitted any which did not seem to me to come within my plan. I may remark, however, that several pieces by writers of the eighteenth century have been discarded, owing to the fact that, though otherwise acceptable, they contained expressions of an indecorous or unpleasant nature. These, following the example of distinguished predecessors, I might have modified, but I have preferred either to insert a poem as its author wrote it, or else to dispense with it altogether.
A large proportion of the pieces have never before appeared in a collection, and some appear in book form for the first time.
I may add that the Introduction is designed merely to explain the principle on which the collection has been made, and that the Notes have been restricted as much as possible to brief explanations of allusions which might not have been intelligible to every reader.