A silent change dissolves the glittering mass.
Statesmen, Chiefs, Orators, Queens, Patriots, Kings,
And Dandies, all are gone on the wind’s wings.”
Yet we may point to the pages of Pepys’s “Diary,” and say that there the globe is still whole, and that there men and women of nearly three times eighty years ago live and move before our eyes.
In taking leave of the official, the gossip, the musician, and the man of letters, I can only express the hope that these pages may be found a useful companion to one of the most interesting books in the English language.
APPENDIX.
| [I.] | Portraits of Samuel Pepys. |
| [II.] | The Schemes of Alexander Marchant, Sieur de St. Michel (Mrs. Pepys’s Father). |
| [III.] | Pepys’s Manuscripts at Oxford. |
| [IV.] | Musical Instruments. |
| [V.] | Pepys’s Correspondents. |
| [VI.] | List of the Officers of the Navy. |
| [VII.] | Plays which Pepys saw Acted. |