VI 
ADDRESS. 
attain a measure of the latter, even though 
he may be conscious of possessing neither 
great vigour of intellect nor grandeur of ge- 
nius. 
The ability with which the foregoing volumes 
of the Oriental Annual have been 
conducted, and the popularity of the gen- 
tlemen who jointly laboured to produce 
them, forbid success to the present volume 
should it fall short of its predecessors in art 
or general interest ; and this consideration had 
well nigh induced the Author to decline the 
undertaking. Animated, however, by finding 
the most distinguished artists of the day 
ready to correct the errors of his pencil, and 
hoping that he might secure the indulgence 
of his readers by frankly acknowledging his 
diffidence as to his literary capacity for such 
a work, he ventured to think again before he 
quite declined it. The question, still undecided, 
occupied the Author’s meditations, as he turned to 
consult D’Israeli’s Curiosities of Literature, with 
a determination to weigh dispassionately all which 
is therein so persuasively urged against the prac- 
tices of “ Authors of moderate capacity.” There 
