assume were he to allow his predilections to run riot through its pages.

It is easy to say with Sterne, "Let us write a duodecimo," but with what measure may an enthusiastic or just admiration be limited as to the overflowing volume of appreciation?

Mere cubic capacity as to size of the volume, or the superficial area of its pages, will not serve. The arts of the publisher and his printer can nullify any preconceived plans of this nature.

A judicious selection of the material to be used would be much more likely to bring about the desired result, though again we are confronted by the moving question as to how elaborate or extensive a work is necessary in order to cover the ground as minutely or as broadly as might be desired.

The result will not be found to approach the completeness of an historical record, nor yet the flimsiness of a mere sentimental journey along well-worn roads. It fills, rather, the gap which lies between, in view of the greater interest which is daily being shown in all things relating to Ireland - its literature, its history, its architecture, and its arts. Hence

to a considerable public, which, it may be presumed, will ultimately show an interest therein, it is offered as an appreciation of the Ireland of the past and the present, based upon something more than a personally conducted tour to Killarney, or a jaunting-car ride about Queenstown, while awaiting the departure of the Atlantic mail-boat.

CHAPTER II.

THE

A TRAVEL CHAPTER

HE true peripatetic philosopher is the only genuine traveller, and the vagabond and the pilgrim are but varieties of the species. The

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personally conducted," alone or in droves, have no realization of the unquestionable authority by which nature "sets up her boundaries and fences; and so circumscribes the discontent of man," to borrow the words of Sterne.

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The individual who merely wants to get there" in the shortest possible time, and by the most direct road, knows not the joys of travel, nor ever will.

The moods of the traveller are likewise a varied thing; circumstances never alter cases more than when met with unexpectedly by him who travels for business or pleasure.

With Ireland the above singularly applies.