SAUNDERS, OTLEY, AND CO. 66, BROOK STREET, HANOVER SQUARE. 1861. [The right of Translation is reserved.] 250.h.31. DEDICATION. TO M-W-- Esq. My dear Father, If I had possessed the privilege of selecting the most brilliant name which Fame has inscribed on her annals, and placing it on this page, I should have preferred yours to it, associated as it is in my mind with the most hallowed recollections of the Past, as well as interwoven with some of the brightest hopes of the Future. The strongest reason of all, however, for this preference, is that you have always exemplified as well as often advocated in my hearing those great principles of Truth, Humanity and Justice, it is one of the objects of this work to enforce, and whatever be its fate, I shall be amply rewarded, if it helps in any way to cheer the many lonely hours the Evening of Life has brought to you and my amiable Mother. With every sentiment of esteem, Believe me, ever, October, 1861. Your affectionate son, THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. IN committing this work to the Press the Author derives no small measure of consolation from the reflection that the severest criticism will not be able to discover in it a greater number of faults than he himself has already detected. Fully alive, however, as he is to the want of that artistic skill-glowing imagery - brilliant diction- unbroken unity and startling catastrophe, which lend such a charm to the higher class of works of Fiction, he, nevertheless, ventures to indulge the hope that, if it serve no other purpose, it may at all events help to relieve one or more of those hours of listlessness and languor revolving years bring to us all. October, 1861. |