What, then, are the writer's apprehensions? He affirms them to be neither affected nor groundless. The spirit and tone of the volume, he fears, will, in some quarters, limit its acceptance. In their opinions of Fashionable Amusements, both the religious and worldly classes of society are, for the most part, confirmed. If they read on the topic, it must be books, which will sanction and strengthen their convictions. An acceptable writer must be devoted to their interests; he must be the disputant, rather than the enquirer, an 'advocate rather than a judge. That in most of the discussions on the subject this taste has been consulted, or at least conformed to, is sufficiently apparent. Coloured representations, overstrained arguments, unsupported assertions, sweeping censure, and unsparing anathemas, are the glittering, but feeble weapons, which have too often been displayed in this field of controversy. They have been wielded in proud, but useless defiance; they have

provoked rather than intimidated, and engaged without conquering the foe.

The present writer ventures into the arena, but in a different attitude, and in other habiliments. Though firm to the cause professedly maintained, he is, nevertheless, fair and liberal to his opponents. Contending for truth, and not for victory, he yields the palm into what hands soever justice assigns it. Approaching his subject in the spirit rather of enquiry than opposition, he endeavours to lend an impartial ear to the arguments on either side, and to give them their legitimate weight in the scale of judgment.

That such a spirit is the more commendable, will, by the judicious and considerate, be readily granted; that it will be the more generally approved admits a question. The ignorant, contracted, and bigoted, will probably pronounce it timid and compromising; they will be impatient

with its arguments, and provoked with its caution; they will censure its candour, and reproach its liberality.

With another class of readers, however, the Author hopes for success-persons of correct mental habits and moral principles, possessing intelligence, a spirit of enquiry, and a love of truth. Such persons will readily perceive the delicacy and difficulty of the task which the writer has undertaken, and will extend to it, he trusts, that consideration and indulgence which it will undoubtedly need. They will welcome an attempt to discover truth, to soften the asperities of party-feeling, and to diffuse, both amongst the advocates and opponents of the gratifications in question, a more calm and equitable judgment on the points in debate. In the sentiments and spirit of the present production, the writer presumes, an identity will especially be found with the habits of thought and feeling which are peculiar to young per

sons; and on this ground he advances a claim to the particular attention of this class of his readers.

The Author commits his book to the world. He is relieved, in some measure, from the unpleasantness attending the consciousness of its numerous defects, by the hope that his fears have overrated them, and, still farther, by a recollection of the value of the cause to which his labours have been devoted.

London, June, 17th, 1827.