TO THE VERY REVEREND

IN CHRIST,

MOST RELIGIOUS FATHER,

FATHER IGNATIUS OF ST. JAMES,

Cleric of the Poor Regulars, Mother of God,

OF THE PIARIST SCHOOLS

For the third time throughout Germany

PROVINCIAL SUPERIOR,

MOST OBSERVABLE FATHER,

for three years; than this light and slight game of poetic weakness? For just as a veteran teacher murmurs half-broken syllables to a stammering youth, so too, among the amusing flock of boys, who are ordered to take a holiday from their studies, he delights to play the child for a while with the aged Socrates, with a Muse nearing old age. Playful poetry accommodates itself to the genius of the little ones just as well.