Preface to the First Edition (1945)
To begin with, this anthology is for the thinker, and not for the feeler, primarily for the extrovert thinker. Needless to say, it runs over into some of his introverted and intuitive margins.

The editors laid down certain rules:

Nothing that is probably already too familiar or too accessible.

Nothing purely inspirational, nothing sentimental. And yet nothing cynical. Nobility of thought keeps on the crown of the road, out of the gutters.

Nothing that is not worth re-reading. Some things that can be chewed over almost indefinitely. Pieces that are tough enough, juicy enough to chew. Some that are scarcely worth reading only once.

As between the ancient and the modern, the modern. When we have used the ancient, it is because we know of nothing better since.

The form in which the piece is written to make no odds. Treatise, textbook, letter, novel, speech, verse, anything is given equal welcome.