reference to the Index will settle any apparent inconsistency.—As has before been observed, I have not attempted elegance of style. The communications of Correspondents being in general given in their own language, uniformity in that respect was impracticable: nor was it needful; clearness and conciseness being much more material than ornament.
In two or three instances, I am aware that a small article has been repeated; not, the Reader may be assured, for the purpose of swelling the size, as materials in plenty were at hand; but, in a work so miscellaneous and so extended—arranged amidst the thousand distractions of business, the interruptions of illness, and sometimes of an occasional excursion in the country—a lapse of memory, at sixty-seven, it is hoped, will be forgiven. In several cases, I have made the amende honorable; and punished myself by the additional labour and expence of canceling the leaves, and substituting new articles in their stead.—May I shelter myself under the same excuse for the insertion of a few passages, which in a young man would be imputed to egotism or vanity?
If, in any of these pages, I may appear to have borrowed largely from others, let it be recollected that others have borrowed largely from me; and that I frequently am only reclaiming my own.
