PREFACE 



" Oh, that mine adversary had written 

 a book." Job xxxi 25. 



IT is usual for authors to preface their books with 

 a short statement of the leading features of the 

 work they are about to place before the public. 

 In the present case, for several reasons, which 

 will probably be apparent to the reader as he 

 turns over these pages, it appears to be particu- 

 larly desirable to begin this book with such an 

 explanation ; as its design will be found to differ 

 a good deal from that of other books, upon 

 kindred subjects, which have already been published. 

 The Author is unable to conceal from himself 

 that the scope of this work is somewhat ambitious 

 that is to say, it deals with a vast variety of 

 different topics, introducing details, many of which 

 have certainly (so far as his researches have 

 extended) never been collected into any single work 

 before. A number of points will also be found 

 debated in these pages, which he ventures to 

 believe have not been previously touched upon in 

 any other work ; other subjects again, have been 

 presented in a new, and as he humbly hopes, in 

 a not uninteresting or uninstructive form. 



