Transcriber’s Note Obvious typos and punctuation errors have been corrected. Inconsistencies in spelling have been retained. The book advertisement at the end of the text uses a Unicode character "White Right Pointing Index" (U+261E) for a right pointing hand. If the font in use on the reader's device does not support it, this character, ☞, may not display correctly. Italic text in the original is represented by underscores surrounding the _italic text_. Small capitals in the original have been converted to ALLCAPS in the text. Superscripted letters are indicated by a preceding ^ character, and multiple consecutive superscripted characters are surrounded by brackets, for example, 1^{st}. Descriptions of illustrations without captions have been added to the text. The Index lists an entry "Newton, Sir Isaac, quoted, 5-6." but this quotation does not seem to exist at those pages or anywhere else in the text. The Index lists an entry "Volk, Leonard W., quoted, 237, 238." but this quotation does not seem to exist at those pages. A reference to Volk is found on pp. 249-250. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: EDWIN BOOTH] [See page 38 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Portraits in Plaster FROM THE COLLECTION OF LAURENCE HUTTON [Illustration of torch being passed hand to hand] NEW YORK HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 1894 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright, 1894, by HARPER & BROTHERS. _All rights reserved._ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ILLUSTRATIONS