that were original with himself and those of which he was simply the translator. He was able, however, to stamp his own individuality pretty thoroughly on all the editorial portions of his volumes, and occasionally, as in the sharp satire of women in the _Dictes and Sayings of Philosophers_, we find something which seems to be very definitely an expression of personal opinion. For poetry Caxton had a cordial appreciation, and he printed the most noteworthy poems which were within his reach. In his second edition of _The Canterbury Tales_, he speaks of Chaucer as “the first founder of ornate eloquence in our English.” In history, the only works at that time available in English were the _Chronicle of Brute_ and the _Polychronicon_. To the latter, Caxton himself prepared a continuation, bringing the narrative down nearly to his own time. Some of the earlier English authors, in recognition of the value of his work as a chronicler, class Caxton among the historians, while overlooking his distinctive service in introducing into England the art of printing. He was evidently a man of wide reading, and the acquaintance which he possessed with existing literature must have seemed very exceptional for his generation. His great delight was in romances, but he takes pains to tell us that these pleased him not simply for their accounts of feats of personal prowess, but rather for the examples presented in them of “courtesy, humanity, friendliness, hardiness, love, cowardice, murder, hate, virtue, and sin, which inflamed the hearts of the readers and hearers to eschew and flee works vicious and dishonest.[58]” In his long and varied business career Caxton appears to have made no enemies and to have given no grounds for criticism or complaint, and during the troublous times of civil war he was able, notwithstanding his intimate relations with some of those high in authority, to preserve his independence of character and an unsullied record. He was not a man of genius, nor, perhaps, of the highest ideals; but he showed imagination, enterprise, and persistent courage. His work was honestly, intelligently, and effectively done, and his country has good reason to honour the memory of its first publisher. =Wynken de Worde.=--Caxton’s successor, Wynken de Worde, was by birth a Lorrainer, and had accompanied Caxton on his removal from Bruges to London. He had made good use of his years of preliminary training, and he was able largely to improve upon Caxton’s printing methods, while in his publishing undertakings, he had the advantage of a constantly widening circle of readers of books. His publications comprised no less than four hundred separate works, covering a wide range of literature. He does not appear himself to have undertaken any translating or editorial responsibilities, and in fact no one of the English printers of the sixteenth century is to be placed in the group of scholars to which belonged Aldus, Froben, and the Estiennes.