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The brief memoir of Mary Queen of Scots, and the critical monographs on Congreve, Keats, and Landor, which reappear in this volume, have already appeared in the Encyclopædia Britannica. Most of the other articles here reprinted were first published in the Nineteenth Century or the Fortnightly Review. For the miscellaneous character of such a collection the title selected as the only one appropriate must be taken as conveying whatever may be thought requisite of apology or excuse. For the opinions or the expressions of opinion thus republished on literary or other matters I have no such plea to offer in arrest of judgment from any quarter. I have had the honour to be assailed with some vehemence for the disrespect shown in my occasional reference to writers whose ability no rational man could be supposed capable of denying. All belief involves or implies a corresponding disbelief: it is impossible, if words have any meaning, for any one who understands that meaning to assert that he believes in original sin, or the infernal predestination of unregenerate or unchristened infancy, and in the same breath to proclaim his belief in the divine word which affirms that of such as unchristened and unregenerate children is the kingdom of heaven. We may believe in Christ or in Calvin, in St. John or in St. Augustine: but no