THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 3 



true votary of the science, if founded only upon the 

 soHd 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 — " Qu^que 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 

 once present itself, that " qui s excuse s' accuse," with 

 regard to my . having joined the class of wiitatores, 

 which, from our school-boy days, we have held as 

 " servum pecus," and it will be too evident, I fear, that 



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