PREFACE.
vii
the parent of many, and in the mean time the mind gets diverted, as mine has too frequently been, to other and more immediately attractive topics. My book goes forward, then,
"With all its imperfections on its head."
They would have been many more but for the watchful care of my friend Mayer, to whom I offer this public testimony of my thanks.
There are some, I know, who look upon the occupations of a Translator as ignoble and unworthy of literary ambition. I am well content to stand at respectful distance from those great intellects whose works are borne on the wings of an all-pervading fame to every country where the ear of civilization is listening. Yet I cannot believe that my
