With each volume of this subscription edition (1912) there is a specialintroduction, setting forth, in so far as seemed possible, the relationof each work to myself, to its companion works, and to the scheme of myliterary life. Only one or two things, therefore, need be said here, asI wish God-speed to this edition, which, I trust, may help to make oldfriends warmer friends and new friends more understanding. Most of thenovels and most of the short stories were suggested by incidents orcharacters which I had known, had heard of intimately, or, as inthe case of the historical novels, had discovered in the works ofhistorians. In no case are the main characters drawn absolutely fromlife; they are not portraits; and the proof of that is that no one hasever been able to identify, absolutely, any single character in thesebooks. Indeed, it would be impossible for me to restrict myself toactual portraiture. It is trite to say that photography is not art, andphotography has no charm for the artist, or the humanitarian indeed,in the portrayal of life. At its best it is only an exhibition of outerformal characteristics, idiosyncrasies, and contours. Freedom isthe first essential of the artistic mind. As will be noticed in theintroductions and original notes to several of these volumes, it isstated that they possess anachronisms; that they are not portraits ofpeople living or dead, and that they only assume to be in harmony withthe spirit of men and times and things. Perhaps in the first few pagesof 'The Right of Way' portraiture is more nearly reached than in anyother of these books, but it was only the nucleus, if I may say so, of alarger development which the original Charley Steele never attained. Inthe novel he grew to represent infinitely more than the original everrepresented in his short life.That would not be strange when it is remembered that the germ of The'Right of Way' was growing in my mind over a long period of years, andit must necessarily have developed into a larger conception than theoriginal character could have suggested. The same may be said of thechief characters in 'The Weavers'. The story of the two brothers--DavidClaridge and Lord Eglington--in that book was brewing in my mind forquite fifteen years, and the main incidents and characters of othernovels in this edition had the same slow growth. My forthcoming novel,called 'The Judgment House', had been in my mind for nearly twentyyears and only emerged when it was full grown, as it were; when I wasso familiar with the characters that they seemed as real in all ways asthough they were absolute people and incidents of one's own experience.Little more need be said. In outward form the publishers have made thisedition beautiful. I should be ill-content if there was not also anelement of beauty in the work of the author. To my mind truth aloneis not sufficient. Every work of art, no matter how primitive inconception, how tragic or how painful, or even how grotesque indesign--like the gargoyles on Notre Dame must have, too, the elements ofbeauty--that which lures and holds, the durable and delightful thing.I have a hope that these books of mine, as faithful to life as I couldmake them, have also been touched here and there by the staff of beauty.Otherwise their day will be short indeed; and I should wish for them aday a little longer at least than my day and span.I launch the ship. May it visit many a port! May its freight never lieneglected on the quays!INTRODUCTIONSo far as my literary work is concerned 'Pierre and His People' maybe likened to a new city built upon the ashes of an old one. Let meexplain. While I was in Australia I began a series of short stories andsketches of life in Canada which I called 'Pike Pole Sketches on theMadawaska'. A very few of them were published in Australia, and Ibrought with me to England in 1889 about twenty of them to make into avolume. I told Archibald Forbes, the g --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.