And here a word may be said about the arrangement of the contents, which is not chronological, yet anything but haphazard. The intention has rather been to make it lyrical and vital. I conceive that a collection like this, which is virtually an anthology gathered from the domain of a single poet, should as nearly as possible be itself a poem. That is, it should be so composed, so put together, that the reader may pass from number to number in the sequence as easily and naturally as he would pass from verse to verse of a single poem: even more easily and naturally, perhaps, from a continually renewed sense of refreshment, of slightly changed animation. But this effect is not to be achieved without taking pains. An editor who aims at it must be keenly and even anxiously observant of many values—of values constituted by metrical quality, subject matter, moral mood and so forth—in all the varieties of each and in their interactions. He must try to maintain continuity (the continuity of unflagging animation, interest and enjoyment in the act of reading) through variety and relief, and even through the occasional sudden contrast which may express either a natural reaction and subsidence of mood, or an impetus of the poetic soul in fresh directions. Finally, while disregarding the mere time-order of composition (since the poem which best speaks the truth for a man’s forty-sixth year may well have been written at twenty-one) he must yet try to suggest something of the tone of the poet’s different life-periods, and these in their right order. If the attempt is at all successful, the resulting arrangement should not only do justice to each individual poem by a sympathetic setting, but should compass a general effect of unity and of personality. How far the series from _There was a Lad to Auld Lang Syne_ realises this ideal it is not for me to say. Other things besides the ideal had claims to be considered, such as the proposed scope of the book and the need to distribute the illustrations reasonably through the volume. But I may say that from point to point it has only been after many re-readings and searching comparisons that I have finally decided whether _this_ or _this_ or _this_ poem would most happily and economically follow _that_ one; regard being also had to others that were yet to come. Felicity in the metrical transition was, it will be seen, the value predominantly considered in the earlier pages, while towards the close (I speak of the _Songs and Lyrics_ section) there has been more conscious grouping of poems reinforcing one another in the expression or suggestion of a mood or colour-tone of the mind. I say predominantly; for both principles of arrangement, as well as those of relief and contrast, have been used throughout. Thus _Lassie wi’ the Lint-White Locks_, _The Posie_, _My Lady’s Gown_, and _The Daisy_ (pp. 41-4) have an element in common—a certain refinement and gentleness of feeling—which brings them within