THOUGHTS. "Could I embody and unbosom now That which is most within me-could I wreak "From grave to gay, from lively to severe." -Byron. LONDON: C. H. CLARKE, 23A, PATERNOSTER ROW. 270. c. 346. PREFACE. A PREFACE is notoriously written last, and read—if it be read at all, and I believe it is most commonly skipped -first. I had not intended to put such an appendage to an unpretending work like the present; the less so as the first chapter is, in fact, a preface moreover, I have inserted another in the very middle of the book. But my publisher insists upon the necessity.of following a custom so universal. "Che sara sara "-what must be must be; and thus adjured, I comply to the best of my ability. O, gentle reader! what reasons am I to give for launching this little skiff, all unknown as I am, into the stormy sea of criticism, or, worse still, the ocean of contempt ? Partial friends-too partial, of course-advise publishing; see my own demerits; hope the public will look on them with an indulgent eye; and so forth. Away with such mock humility! I believe the following pages to be a concentrated essence of genius. Why else should I give them to the world? One thing, I confess, presses on me-I like to make a clean breast. On reading over the work to an intimate friend, he told me, to my horror, that I have, in a certain chapter, committed an unpardonable offence against Religion. Possibly he meant his particular form of Religion-his own creed, in short. However, I am somewhat consoled by being assured by an old lady whom I have long known and esteemed, and to whom I also submitted the manuscript, on the same principle that Molière read his plays over to his housekeeper, that what she most highly approved of—and she is a truly pious woman—was that particular chapter. Rousseau prefaced his "Nouvelle Héloise" by saying that any modest woman who should read it would be forthwith perverted. Of course all the modest women in France got the book at once. I do not wish to employ such a clap-trap expedient. I hope I have not sinned against religion, morality, or decorum, and that "thoughts" which might not otherwise have occurred, may be called up by this little publication. |