Now Emblem books have had their day, and are no longer regarded as a means of instruction or delight. They have done their duty as ornamental wits and lively educators, and now make way for others more suited to the age. There will be found very few theological teachers of our day who would, like Sebastian Stockhamer,[3] not only advise a patron to have the Emblems of Alciati always at hand at home and abroad, but suggest that he should do as Alexander did with the works of Homer, sleep with them under his pillow. He, therefore, who ventures to put forth his own conceits, clothed in this old-fashioned dress, before the present world of critical thinkers and impatient novel readers, must apologise for his intrusion and crave indulgence. Some, perhaps, who may look into these pages, will sympathise with the Author in the pleasure he has enjoyed in following the footsteps of the ingenious Emblematists of old, and will accept the subjoined Emblem as an illustration of their common feeling upon the subject:-- Though the new be gold, some love the old. "They have wrecked the old farm with its chimneys so high, And white flashing gables--my childhood's delight, The old home is gone, and the sorrowing eye Shuns the blue-slated upstart that glares from its site;" So flowed my fresh feeling, when loud at my side Rose the voice of a stranger arresting the tide: "What an emblem is here of the glories of change, Which purges and pares the old world to its quick; Transforming that rat-hole and ricketty grange, With its plaster and laths to a mansion of brick." The prose chilled like ice,--I sank into my skin, And felt my poor sentiment almost a sin. The Author thinks it necessary to say, that circumstances over which he had no control prevented him from carrying out his original idea, which was that every set of verses should be accompanied by an illustration; and it is only by the assistance of many friends, to whom his best acknowledgments are due, that he has been able to provide the comparatively few accompanying woodcuts. FOOTNOTES: [1] See p. 8 of Preface to "Andrea Alciati and his Book of Emblems," etc., by Henry Green, M.A.; London, Trübner and Co., 1872, in which the learned writer states he has "formed an index of Emblem Books of which the titles number upwards of 3000, and the authors above 1300. [2] This little book was followed by another of the same description published at Venice 1546. These two were afterwards combined into one volume. [3] See p. 5 of his edition of A. Alciati Emblemata, 1556. CONTENTS. PAGE PROEM 1 EMBLEMS EVERYWHERE 3 THE SUN AN EMBLEM OF THE CREATOR 4 SUNSET ON CAMPAGNA OF ROME 5 CUPID REFORMED 7