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ADVERTISEMENT.

THIS work having gone through the press under the superintendence of different gentlemen, it may be necessary, in some measure, to apologize for the very defective state of the first volume. One of the most obvious blunders it may be, however, necessary to particularise; namely, the insertion of the word templar for the temporal artery: this, together with firey for fiery, and others, equally erudite and elegant, are intended as specimens: we trust the reader will find fewer claims for his indulgence, on this score, in the second volume.

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PREFACE.

"I long ha' thought, my youthfu' friend,
A somthing to have sent you;

Tho' it should serve no other end

Than just a kind memento.

But how the subject theme may gang,

Let time and chance determine;

Perhaps it may turn out a sang,

Perhaps turn out a sermon!"

BURNS.

THE above quotation I address to the youthful reader; should any "children of a larger growth" deign to bestow an instant's attention on the lucubrations (properly so called), of one entirely unknown to them-I say, that if, in the following pages, they recognise any attempt made to copy the style of the author of "Waverly," they are to ascribe it merely to a desire I entertain of pursuing that track, which experience has proved to be the best. This desire is, however, untinctured by any ridiculous idea

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of rivalling or even competing with the Master I allude to, who, it must be acknowledged, has paid dearly for his popularity, in witnessing the many barbarous inroads attempted on a province he has made peculiarly his own, by a Horde, who may aptly be described as the Vandals of Literature. Caitiffs, without one particle of either taste or genius, whose ignorance, superlative as it is, only equals their arrogance, from an union of which alone could have arisen that multiplicity of wretched abortions, which have emanated from the Press; the stagnation of whose stupidity was from the first prevented, either by the venial soothings of interested Reviewers, or (considering the materials of which such sculls are formed), the incautious application of the scalping knife of Criticism.

Without participating in the vanity which has urged so many to expose themselves to worse than contempt, by endeavouring to equal the above-mentioned author, whose power of delineating character is, perhaps, only surpassed by his knowledge of the

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