Page:Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922).djvu/14

viii of modern writers and speakers; no other includes such a record of modern war phrases, songs and poems; nowhere else are kindred thoughts and expressions so closely connected by cross references that they may be compared, and in no other collection of quotations have the nerves and arteries of the contents been laid open so plainly through so comprehensive and complete a concordance.

Topics have been chosen for their general, character, so that similar ideas might not be too widely separated, which is a fault of too detailed subdivision.

The compiler takes comfort in the words of Cotton Mather: "Reader, Carthagena was of the mind that unto those three things which the ancients held to be impossible, there should be added this fourth; to find a book without Erratas. It seems the hands of Briareus and the eyes of Argus will not prevent them." Whatever degree this work has attained in the achievement of the impossible, it owes to Author:Leander Jan De Bekker, the Briareus and Argus of the printed page and its literary contents. Appreciation and gratitude are but feebly expressed in this tribute to his services.

Acknowledgment is due to, for permission to use the lines written by Peter NewelNewell [sic] found on pages 280 and 538.