This volume collects various books, edited or written by Ruskin, which he published under the general title Bibliotheca Pastorum. It thus comprises: (I.) The Economist of Xenophon, translated by two of Ruskin's pupils, and prefaced by himself (1876); (II.) Selections from Sir Philip Sidney's Psalter, arranged and annotated, with introductory essays, by Ruskin, under the title Rock Honeycomb (1877); (III.) an essay by Ruskin on the Elements of English Prosody (1880), explanatory of terms issued in the foregoing book; and (IV.) A Knight's Faith (1885), under which title Ruskin rearranged, with much matter of his own, the journals of Sir Herbert Edwardes describing A Year on the Punjab Frontier, 1848–1849.

It should be explained that No. III. in the foregoing list was not numbered by Ruskin as a volume in Bibliotheca Pastorum; it was too short for such. Vol. III. in the series was to have been a further selection from Sidney's Psalter. This, however, Ruskin did not publish. He had, however, prepared a portion of it for the press, and this additional matter, now for the first time printed, is here included in Rock Honeycomb. Finally, in an Appendix, given in this volume for a reason presently explained (pp. xxxiv., xxxv.), is some matter which will throw a new light for most people on Ruskin's many-sided interests—namely, examples of his setting of songs to music.

The volume belongs, in virtue of its origin and purpose, to the same group of Ruskin's undertakings which includes Fors Clavigera (Vols. XXVII.-XXIX.) and the St. George's Guild (Vol. XXX.). “A republication of classical authors in standard forms” had “long been a main object” with Ruskin.