A PREFACE WHIMSEY is defined by the dictionaries as a whim, a freak, a capricious notion, an odd device. Though of trifling value as literary efforts, verbal whimseys often display such ingenuity and patience of labor that they command, perforce, a certain admiration. Many of the best and most learned of writers have amused themselves in making these oddities, but as modern times offer little leisure for such work, the best examples are oftenest found among the works of the earlier authors. A literary whimsey is not merely the expression of a whimsical thought or fancy, but an odd or capricious form of that expression. It is whimseys of manner not matter that are offered in this collection. |