PREFACE. xliii 



of the person of the shooter to the disci- 

 pline of the drill/' to offer any formal train 

 of argument, or by any of the usual modes 

 of reasoning, to repel the sneer with 

 which petulant vulgarity, or unreflecting 

 ignorance, may be prompted to entreat 

 " the novel action of a man's working 

 himself into a shot by rule/' and the "fire- 

 side foolery," here inculcated, would, on 

 the part of the editor, be an idle trespass 

 on the reader's attention, and only detain 

 him from the better employment of his 

 time. Every such objector will receive 

 his answer in the course of the following 

 pages : and in taking leave, I have only to 

 avail myself of the author's own language, 

 in a passage selected from the unappro- 

 priated matter within my reach ; and which, 

 as an impressive appeal to the understand- 

 ing of the reader, may be accepted as 

 conclusive on this point. " In the supe- 

 rior attainment of all art, a submission to 

 method and to rule is of the very essence 

 of instruction: and if that rule be not 

 already supplied, we are under the neces- 



