Making every allowance for the co-operation of other causes, it would hardly be an exaggeration to say that the appearance of the _Golden Treasury of Songs and Lyrics_ in 1861 initiated an era in popular taste. It remains now incomparably the best selection of its kind in existence. Its distinctive feature is the characteristic which differentiates it from all the anthologies which preceded or have followed it. It was to include nothing which was not first-rate; there was to be no compromise with the second-rate; if its gems varied, as gems do in value, each was to be of the first water. With patient and scrupulous diligence, the whole body of English poetry, from Surrey to Wordsworth, was explored and sifted. After due rejections, each piece in the residue was considered, weighed, tested. And here Mr. Palgrave had assistance, more invaluable than any other anthologist in the world has had--that of the illustrious poet to whom the volume was dedicated. It may be safely said of Tennyson that nature and culture had qualified him for being as great a critic as he was a poet. His taste was probably infallible; his touchstones and standards were derived not merely from the masters who had taught him his own art, but from a wonderfully catholic and sympathetic communion with all that was best in every sphere of influential artistic activity. The consequence is, that a book like the _Golden Treasury_, especially when taken in conjunction with the notes, which form an admirable commentary on the text, may be said to lay something more than the foundation of a sound critical education. What the _Golden Treasury_ is to readers of a maturer age the _Children’s Treasury_ is to younger readers. It is a great pity that such inferior works as many which we could name are allowed, in our schools, to supplant such a work as Palgrave’s. The same exquisite taste and nice discernment mark his other anthologies, his selections from Herrick, and Tennyson, and, though perhaps in a less degree, his _Treasury of English Sacred Poetry_, and his recently published supplement to the _Golden Treasury_. It is probably impossible to over-estimate the salutary influence which these works have exercised.