1196 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



this book about oysters with a hesitating hand. Judged as 

 a compilation a gathering of many beautiful literary and 

 scientific flowers, culled from the gardens of others it 

 may not be denied that it has some pretensions to merit, 

 and it will be only to my part of the labour, the task of 

 arranging these flowers and tying them together, which 

 will have assigned to it the righteous condemnation of 

 possessing " little or no merit," a verdict in which I 

 heartily join. But whatever merit it possesses, it must 

 make its way through the world as well as it can. It will 

 doubtless receive many a jostle as it goes along, and per- 

 haps is destined to add one more to the number of slain, 

 in the field of modern criticism. But if it fall, it may still, 

 in death, be useful to me ; for, should some other writer 

 or compiler take it up, and, in turning over its pages, 

 imbibe the idea of exploring " The Ocean World," in order 

 to give the public an enlarged description of Oysterland, I 

 shall say, " fortem ad fortia misi," and demand the armour ; 

 that is, I shall lay claim to a certain portion of the honours 

 he will receive, upon the plea that I was the first mover of 

 his discoveries ; for, as Ulysses sent Achilles to Troy, so I 

 sent him to show the wonders of Oysterland. If critics 

 are displeased with it in its present form, I beg to observe 

 that it is not totally devoid of interest, and that it contains 

 something useful. Should the reader have found the 

 instructions and the information contained herein too 

 tedious, let the wish to give him every scrap of relative 

 knowledge plead in their defence. They might have been 

 shorter ; but Horace says, by labouring to be brief you 

 become obscure. 



" And now, patient reader, having fairly sent round the 

 plate, it is high time to say farewell. Together we have 

 experienced the hardest test which can befall a friendship. 



