INTRODUCTION. 9 



bear repetition. They are invested with just that portion 

 of interest to make them always agreeable, when treated 

 of by one particular pen ; but no more. All attempts to 

 give variety and enlargement to such topics, necessarily 

 prove abortive and ridiculous. The reason on which this 

 canon of literary criticism rests cannot be satisfactorily 

 accounted for, except by simply referring it to the natural 

 order and constitution of things. What more interesting 

 to the feelings of human beings, at all times and seasons, 

 than the grave ? yet Gray's Elegy is the only one that 

 ever has been or ever will be written, under the 

 auspices of immortality. There can be no doubt, that 

 there have been hundreds of authors since the time of 

 De Foe, who could have written as good a Robinson 

 Crusoe as his own ; but the stigma of a repetition would 

 nullify whatever ability and genius might be displayed 

 in such an undertaking. Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress 

 is a striking illustration of the paramount influence of a 

 well-timed treatment of a particular subject. Mankind 

 will never tolerate a second Don Quixote; nor will the 

 adventures of Gil Bias ever lose their influence by any 

 rival attempts to delineate the same kind or class of hu- 

 man characters and events. Swift's Gulliver's Travels 

 and his Tale of a Tub set all imitators or improvers at 

 defiance. Precisely so is it, with respect to Izaak 

 Walton. He has taken up a certain position from which 

 no one can hope to dislodge him, let his talents and 

 acquirements be what they may. 



The superior facilities which modern travelling, through 

 the agency of steam, affords for visiting different coun- 

 tries with rapidity and security, will in all probability 

 greatly increase this species of literature, and thus furnish 

 the youth of England with fresh motives for enlarging 



