'On Poetic Interpretation of Nature':—'By Nature, then, I understand the whole sum of appearances which reach us, which are made known to us, primarily through the senses. It includes all the intimations we have through sense of that great entity which lies outside of ourselves, but with which we have so much to do. For my present purpose I do not include man, either his body or his mind, as part of Nature, but regard him rather as standing out from Nature, and surveying and using that great external entity which encompasses and confronts him at every turn, he being the contemplator, Nature the thing contemplated.'
In conclusion, I wish to express my sense of gratitude to Professor Charles Eliot Norton, the most distinguished of American Dante scholars, who, although I was a stranger to him, consented, with rare kindness and courtesy, to read my ms. I have re-written parts of the book, and revised the rest in the light of his suggestions and corrections, and whatever value it may have is largely due to him. I would also acknowledge publicly my obligations to Mr. Irville C. Le Compte for aid in reading the proof and in verifying citations.
wesleyan university,
middletown, conn.,
March 1897.
