• FOREWORD •

AS WELL AS being a keen guest at the banquet of life, as is shown in his Diary and Table Talk, Marchbanks has always been a voluminous correspondent, and as well as his published writings has accumulated many notebooks filled with his occasional thoughts and reflections. Printed in full, this matter would fill several volumes, and would doubtless deserve some such title as The Marchbanks Archive. But as both he and I have observed that the full correspondence of any man is a mind-numbing bore, and that most fleeting thoughts would do well to go right on fleeting, we have decided to offer a selection only, and to include letters received by him which throw light on his many-sided nature.

The Editor