Here I have written about a few of these books which have borne me good company, in one way or another,—and about their authors, who have put the best of themselves into their work. Such criticism as the volume contains is therefore mainly in the form of appreciation with reasons for it. The other kind of criticism you will find chiefly in the omissions. So (changing the figure to suit this cabin by the sea) I send forth my new ship, hoping only that it may carry something desirable from each of the ports where it has taken on cargo, and that it may not be sunk by the enemy before it touches at a few friendly harbours. HENRY VAN DYKE. SYLVANORA, _Seal Harbour, Me., August 19, 1922_. CONTENTS _I._ _The Book of Books_ 1 _II._ _Poetry in the Psalms_ 33 _III._ _The Good Enchantment of Dickens_ 63 _IV._ _Thackeray and Real Men_ 103 _V._ _George Eliot and Real Women_ 131 _VI._ _The Poet of Immortal Youth (Keats)_ 165 _VII._ _The Recovery of Joy (Wordsworth)_ 189 _VIII._ _“The Glory of the Imperfect” (Browning)_ 233 _IX._ _A Quaint Comrade by Quiet Streams (Walton)_ 289 _X._ _A Sturdy Believer (Samuel Johnson)_ 307 _XI._ _A Puritan Plus Poetry (Emerson)_ 333 _XII._ _An Adventurer in a Velvet Jacket (Stevenson)_ 357 ILLUSTRATIONS _John Keats_ Frontispiece Facing page _Charles Dickens as Captain Bobadil in “Every Man in His Humour”_ 82 _William Makepeace Thackeray_ 120 _William Wordsworth_ 200 _Robert Browning_ 246 _Samuel Johnson_ 314 _Ralph Waldo Emerson_ 340 _Robert Louis Stevenson_ 360 _In the cover design by Margaret Armstrong the books and authors are represented by the following symbolic flowers: Bible—grapes; Psalms—wheat; Dickens—English holly; Thackeray—English rose; George Eliot—ivy; Keats—bleeding-heart; Wordsworth—daffodil; Browning—pomegranate; Izaak Walton—strawberry; Johnson—oak; Stevenson—Scottish bluebell._ THE BOOK OF BOOKS _An Apologue_