IT has long been one of my pleasantest anticipations to look forward to the time when I might offer to you my old and dear friend some such acknowledgment of the value I place on your affection for me and of my grateful sense of the many acts of kindness by which that affection has been proved as I now gladly offer in this place. In dedicating the present work to you I fulfil therefore a purpose which for some time past I have sincerely desired to achieve; and more than that I gain for myself the satisfaction of knowing that there is one page at least of my book on which I shall always look with unalloyed pleasure--the page that bears your name.