THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 3 



own amusement or the benefit of others, to pubHsh 

 matter which must be more or less interesting to every 

 true votary of the science, if founded only upon the 

 solid basis of experience. 



Furthermore, be it remembered, that anything ema- 

 nating from the mere theorist, is as little worthy of notice 

 as " An authentic Account of Operations from the Seat 

 of War in Spain," issuing periodically from a garret in 

 Seven Dials ; that no one should pretend to write or 

 offer an opinion upon the subject, who cannot of these 

 things say, " Quseque ipse vidi — et quorum pars fui." 



Now for myself, in defence of this, my humble essay, 

 I do not pretend to say with Horace, " Dicam insigne, 

 recens adhuc Indictum ore alio." I am bound to state, 

 feeling tremblingly alive to the imputation, on the one 

 hand, of presumption, should I attempt to deviate from, 

 or of plagiarism, should I follow too closely in the track 

 of those who have preceded me, that I am actuated by 

 no hope of bringing to light anything new under that sun 

 which I invoke to shine upon my endeavours, and to 

 dispel the threatening clouds which will gather upon the 

 horizon of an author's morning ; by which, in plainer or 

 less poetical phraseology, I would be understood to mean 

 a first attempt at any publication beyond a pamphlet or 

 a song. It is, perhaps, far less incumbent upon me to say 

 one word in anticipation of a charge which never can 

 arise, lest the truism of the French proverb should at 

 b2 



