10 DEFINITION OF A POPULAR BOOK. 



line in the book, which is not marked as a direct 

 quotation, is original; that many of the relations 

 and analogies are such as I have never seen stated; 

 and I am not aware of any allusion to many of the 

 collateral views which are opened up. But I am at 

 liberty to mention the technical execution ; and here 

 I may say, and challenge contradiction, that this is 

 the cheapest book that ever issued from the press. It 

 is an original work; many of the illustrations are 

 copied directly from nature; the others are all from 

 authenticated originals; they are very numerous; and 

 the whole are executed, and the book printed, in the 

 very best style of the arts. Yet the price is not greater 

 than that of mere compilations, of which both the 

 text and the illustrations are borrowed from any 

 source, and prepared and put together in any manner. 

 Indeed, if this volume had had to bear the whole of 

 its own expense, the prime cost per copy, even in 

 anticipation of the largest sale that so expensive a 

 book could have been expected to command, would 

 have been more than double the amount at which it 

 is, under the circumstances, offered to the public. 

 This has been accomplished solely from the greater 

 part of the matter being in types, and the greater 

 number of the cuts available for other purposes. To 

 throw away such an opportunity, I should have felt 

 an injustice to myself, to the proprietors of the work, 

 and to the public, more especially as it furthers that 

 project, the execution of which I feel to be one of the 

 best means which I can have of discharging that duty 

 which every man owes to his country for having 

 afforded him support and protection when incapable 

 of helping himself, and also that debt of gratitude 

 which I feel to be, in my particular case, peculiarly 

 large and immediate. 



