The Pilgrims of the Rhine

Pilgrims of the Rhine

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Title: The Pilgrims Of The Rhine
Author: E. Bulwer Lytton
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THE PILGRIMS OF THE RHINE
TO WHICH IS PREFIXED THE IDEAL WORLD
BY EDWARD BULWER LYTTON (LORD LYTTON)

THE PILGRIMS OF THE RHINE

TO HENRY LYTTON BULWER.
ALLOW me, my dear Brother, to dedicate this Work to you. The
greater part of it (namely, the tales which vary and relieve the voyages
of Gertrude and Trevylyan) was written in the pleasant excursion we
made together some years ago. Among the associations--some sad and
some pleasing--connected with the general design, none are so
agreeable to me as those that remind me of the friendship subsisting
between us, and which, unlike that of near relations in general, has
grown stronger and more intimate as our footsteps have receded farther
from the fields where we played together in our childhood. I dedicate
this Work to you with the more pleasure, not only when I remember
that it has always been a favourite with yourself, but when I think that
it is one of my writings most liked in foreign countries; and I may
possibly, therefore, have found a record destined to endure the
affectionate esteem which this Dedication is intended to convey.
Yours, etc.
E. L. B. LONDON, April 23, 1840.

ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FIRST EDITION.
COULD I prescribe to the critic and to the public, I would wish that

this work might be tried by the rules rather of poetry than prose, for
according to those rules have been both its conception and its execution;
and I feel that something of sympathy with the author's design is
requisite to win indulgence for the superstitions he has incorporated
with his tale, for the floridity of his style, and the redundance of his
descriptions. Perhaps, indeed, it would be impossible, in attempting to
paint the scenery and embody some of the Legends of the Rhine, not to
give (it may be, too loosely) the reins to the imagination, or to escape
the influence of that wild German spirit which I have sought to transfer
to a colder tongue.
I have made the experiment of selecting for the main interest of my
work the simplest materials, and weaving upon them the ornaments
given chiefly to subjects of a more fanciful nature. I know not how far I
have succeeded, but various reasons have conspired to make this the
work, above all others that I have written, which has given me the most
delight (though not unmixed with melancholy) in producing, and in
which my mind for the time has been the most completely absorbed.
But the ardour of composition is often disproportioned to the merit of
the work; and the public sometimes, nor unjustly, avenges itself for that
forgetfulness of its existence which makes the chief charm of an
author's solitude,--and the happiest, if not the wisest, inspiration of his
dreams.

PREFACE.
WITH the younger class of my readers this work has had the good
fortune to find especial favour; perhaps because it is in itself a
collection of the thoughts and sentiments that constitute the Romance
of youth. It has little to do with the positive truths of our actual life, and
does not pretend to deal with the larger passions and more stirring
interests of our kind. It is but an episode out of the graver epic of
human destinies. It requires no explanation of its purpose, and no
analysis of its story; the one is