introctuee even inanimate obj mong their actors, drcum- stance sometimes ttended with consideraMe effect. Even the sun, tile moon, and the winds form of the dmmzt/s prmon. The Transhtors can do little more han direc the &trention of the curious reader to the source whence they have sele theh-materiah. The nature and immediate design of the present pubIicstion exclude the introduction of some of those stories which wmld, in e, literary point of view, be most curious. Wih view to variety, they hve wished rather to void tlmn to select' those, he lesd/ng inc/dents of which are already familiar to the English w. zAer, and hve therefore often deprived themselves of the interest which com- paxison would afford. There were lso mny stories of great merit, and tending highly to the elucidation of' ancien myhology, customs, ancl opinions, which the scapulous fstidiosn of modern tasbe, especially in works likely to attract the abention of youth, wsrned them to pass by. If they should ever be encouraged to resume eir task, they migh undue it with differen ad more serious o'oject In those tles wMeh they hsve selected they hd proposed o make no slterstion whatever; but in a few instzces they have been compelled to depar in some degree from heir purpose. They have, however, endesvoured to no6ice these variations in the nots, and in most cases the alteration oonsists merely in the curtImen of sdventures or circumstances no affectrig the main plot' or charscer of the stnry. A few brief notes are sdded; but the Ti-snslstors trust it will lways be borne in mind, that their lltle work makes no literary pretensions; that its immediate desitin precludes the subject most sttrscti?e as maters of research; and tha professedly critical dlsser- tsons would therefore be out of place. Their object in what they h?e done in this depsrmen, has been merely to attm~--t attention to a subje� tittle noieed, and to point, however impeectly, at a source of inSeresng and amusing imiry. ' 1823.
