TO MY MUCH-ESTEEMED FRIEND,
THE PUBLIC.
My dear Public,—
I have frequently heard you remark, in that quaint and pithy manner so peculiarly your own, that "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy/' If you should happen to find the book which I here present to your notice to be really of such a character as your friend Jack might have written under these distressing circumstances, I am afraid I cannot plead this very sensible observation of yours as my excuse; for I must confess, which I do with thankfulness, that in my time I have enjoyed quite as much play as is good for me, or for any one, in this working-day world of ours. On this point, therefore, my book must stand on its own merits.
But, as I am extremely solicitous of your good opinion, and should be very sorry to see you err on the opposite extreme, imagining, as indeed you might, that mine has
