Page:Life of Jean Paul Frederic Richter (Lee).djvu/11

 PREFACE

TO THE THIRD EDITION.

IT is now twenty-two years since the First Edition of the "Life of Jean Paul" was published, and in the altered condition of our country it seems almost an intrusion and an impertinence to expect such a book to be received with favor; for what is nearest touches us most, and our hearts beat more painfully at domestic tragedies, of which we have had so many, than at the crowded anguish of distant, though kindred cities. But in giving our hearts to the great, to the altogether absorbing and tremendous interests of the passing time, we may not neglect the wayside flowers, the little gems of nature which are scattered in such profusion at our feet.

Carlyle says of Jean Paul: "To old English, alike with new, such a man as this, in such days as these, cannot be too generally known. Let who-