iv PREFACE. 



them lived uncontaminated by the pernicious examples 

 around them. The anecdotes, when they are not on the 

 face of them fabulous, are true, or approximately true. 

 Some of them, indeed, may not be new, but in these 

 cases their applicability to the subject under discussion 

 will, I believe, readily excuse their introduction. The 

 matters of technical detail occasionally dealt with have, 

 I trust, the claim on the reader's attention that is due to 

 examples which in similar cases may be safely followed. 

 The method employed is that which, in the author's 

 opinion, is best calculated to relieve the work from the 

 weariness following monotony; whilst if its general 

 merits should only prove adequate to the truth it con- 

 tains, he can have little doubt of its being received with 

 wide approbation. 



W. D. 

 February, 1886. 



