The Little Schoolmaster Mark: A Spiritual Romance

BY J. H. SHORTHOUSE AUTHOR OF 'JOHN INGLESANT' London MACMILLAN AND CO. AND NEW YORK 1894
Part I—First Edition, October 1883. Reprinted December 1883 Part II—First Edition, 1884. Reprinted twice February 1885 Complete Edition made up from parts 1885. Reprinted 1891, 1894 Printed by R. & R. Clark, Edinburgh.
The readers of German autobiography (and more delightful reading cannot be had) will perceive that I have made use of some passages in the childhood of Heinrich Jung-Stilling to create the character of Little Mark. The experience of the Princess as to private religious societies was also that of Stilling. Should this little tale induce any one, at present ignorant of Stilling's Autobiography, to read that book, they will forget any grudge they may have formed against the present writer. As a matter of common honesty I should wish to express the pleasure I have had in reading another delightful book, Studies of the Eighteenth Century in Italy , by Vernon Lee.
The words of the anthem in the concluding chapter are taken from a sermon by Canon Knox Little, The Vision of the Truth, preached in St. Paul's in Lent 1883, and published in The Witness of the Passion . They are so exactly in accord with the message which the shadowy beings of my tale seem to have left me that I cannot force myself to coin another phrase.
J. H. S.
TO Lady Alwyne Compton BY PERMISSION THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED

The Court Chaplain Eisenhart walked up the village street towards the schoolhouse. It was April, in the year 1750, and a soft west wind was blowing up the street, across the oak woods of the near forest. Between the forest and the village lay a valley of meadows, planted with thorn bushes and old birch trees with snow-white stems: the fresh green leaves trembled continually in the restless wind. On the other side of the street a lofty crag rose precipitously above a rushing mountain torrent. This rock is the spur of other lofty hills, planted with oak and beech trees, through the openings of which a boy may frequently be seen, driving an ox or gathering firewood on his half-trodden path. Here and there in the distance the smoke of charcoal-burners ascends into the sky. Between the street and the torrent stand the houses of the village, with high thatched roofs and walls of timber and of mud, and, at the back, projecting stages and steps above the rushing water. A paradise in the late spring, in summer, and in autumn, these wild and romantic woods, traversed only by a few forest paths, are terrible in winter, and the contrast is part of their charm. The schoolhouse stands in the upper part of the village, on the opposite side of the street to the rest of the houses, looking across the valley to the western sun. Two large birch trees are before the open door. The Court Chaplain pauses before he goes in.