THE STUD, 



PRACTICAL PURPOSES AXD PRACTICAL MEN. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Many persons would without fear or hesitation 

 enter on the task I have here undertaken : many 

 might very properly do so from being more com- 

 petent to the undertaking ; and many more, from 

 the self- conviction that they are so, would fear- 

 lessly at once plunge into the matter. How they 

 might bring themselves out of it, perhaps, admits 

 of as much doubt as I feel in entering on the 

 subject. 



To decide when it would be altogether prudent 

 to reject or to select any article of purchase is no 

 easy task ; for, in all such cases, there is so much 

 to be considered pro and con ; so many circum- 

 stances to be combined before w^e make up our 

 resolves either way, that it is only by pointing out 

 the consequences of certain objections, that we can 



B 



