searchlight into obscure recesses, hitherto undivined.  He will
row out over that great ocean of material, and lower down into
it, here and there, a little bucket, which will bring up to the
light of day some characteristic specimen, from those far depths,
to be examined with a careful curiosity.  Guided by these
considerations, I have written the ensuing studies.  I have
attempted, through the medium of biography, to present some
Victorian visions to the modern eye.  They are, in one sense,
haphazard visions-- that is to say, my choice of subjects has
been
determined by no desire to construct a system or to prove a
theory, but by simple motives of convenience and of art.  It has
been my purpose to illustrate rather than to explain.  It would
have been futile to hope to tell even a precis of the truth about
the Victorian age, for the shortest precis must fill innumerable
volumes.  But, in the lives of an ecclesiastic, an educational
authority, a woman of action, and a man of adventure, I have
sought to examine and elucidate certain fragments of the truth
which took my fancy and lay to my hand.