| "They have wrecked the old farm with its chimneys so high, And white flashing gables—my childhood's delight, The old home is gone, and the sorrowing eye Shuns the blue-slated upstart that glares from its site;" So flowed my fresh feeling, when loud at my side Rose the voice of a stranger arresting the tide: "What an emblem is here of the glories of change, Which purges and pares the old world to its quick; Transforming that rat-hole and ricketty grange, With its plaster and laths to a mansion of brick." The prose chilled like ice,—I sank into my skin, And felt my poor sentiment almost a sin. |
The Author thinks it necessary to say, that circumstances over which he had no control prevented him from carrying out his original idea, which was that every set of verses should be accompanied by an illustration; and it is only by the assistance of many friends, to whom his best acknowledgments are due, that he has been able to provide the comparatively few accompanying woodcuts.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See p. 8 of Preface to "Andrea Alciati and his Book of Emblems," etc., by Henry Green, M.A.; London, Trübner and Co., 1872, in which the learned writer states he has "formed an index of Emblem Books of which the titles number upwards of 3000, and the authors above 1300.
[2] This little book was followed by another of the same description published at Venice 1546. These two were afterwards combined into one volume.
[3] See p. 5 of his edition of A. Alciati Emblemata, 1556.
CONTENTS.