Excerpt from Readings From Irish AuthorsI. Have much pleasure in placing this little booki - a companion volume to Readings from Charles Dickens before my readers.An Irishman myself, possibly I cannot look at Irish literature in an entirely unprejudiced way, but yet, making due allowance for this fact and privilege, I unhesitatingly assert that for enthusiasm, spirit, and pathos, our poetry is equal to any, and our prose writings display a raciness of humour unequalled by any other nation in this respect - they are uproariously comic, without being in the least coarse or profane.I have endeavoured in the limited space at my disposal to bring together much of what is-best for Reading purposes. I have not at all attempted to make a general selection representative of the writings of our country, and I have tried-while the collection will be found characteristically' irish - to avoid the manifestation of that party spirit which, on either hand, when carried to excess, is so heartily to, be deplored. In the poetry of any Nation politics have their place, and therefore in these pages Opposing views will be found, though restrained within reasonable limits. It is scarcely necessary for me to say that I do not hold myself responsible for all the sentiments contained in the selections.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.