Preface.
Much and often as the threshold of fame is profaned by wilful or mistaken intruders, there is something inexpressibly sacred and touching in the first timid footsteps toward its shining altar, taken by the young and pure aspirant who is obeying a beckoning hand which the world cannot yet see. The feeling of deference and honour with which one recognises the mien and utterance of true genius, is mingled irresistibly with the thought of its counterbalancing ills—the thirsts for which common life has no water, and the keener sensibilities, for which human allotment has neither protection nor allowance. At the same threshold, too, stand the crowds of rejected and dis-
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