iv PREFACE. 



outline existed in an age of sensuality and of riotous 

 mirth, and that most of them lived uncontaminated 

 by the pernicious examples around them. The 

 anecdotes, when they are not on the face of them 

 fabulous, are true, or approximately true. Some of 

 them, indeed, may not be new, but in these cases 

 their applicability to the subject under discussion 

 will, I believe, readily excuse their introduction. 

 The matters of technical detail occasionally dealt 

 with have, I trust, the claim on the reader's attention 

 that is due to examples which in similar cases may be 

 safely followed. The method employed is that which, 

 in the author's opinion, is best calculated to relieve 

 the work from the weariness following monotony ; 

 whilst if its general merits should only prove 

 adequate to the truth it contains, he can have little 

 doubt of its being received with wide approbation. 



W. D. 



February, 1886. 



