L'ENVOY.*
Go, little booke, God send thee good passage, And specially let this be thy prayere, Unto them all that thee will read or hear, Where thou art wrong, after their help to call, Thee to correct in any part or all. CHAUCER'S Belle Dame sans Mercie.
IN concluding a second volume of the Sketch Book the Author cannot butexpress his deep sense of the indulgence with which his first has beenreceived, and of the liberal disposition that has been evinced to treathim with kindness as a stranger. Even the critics, whatever may besaid of them by others, he has found to be a singularly gentle andgood-natured race; it is true that each has in turn objected to someone or two articles, and that these individual exceptions, taken in theaggregate, would amount almost to a total condemnation of his work; butthen he has been consoled by observing that what one has particularlycensured another has as particularly praised; and thus, the encomiumsbeing set off against the objections, he finds his work, upon the whole,commended far beyond its deserts.
* Closing the second volume of the London edition.
He is aware that he runs a risk of forfeiting much of this kind favor bynot following the counsel that has been liberally bestowed upon him; forwhere abundance of valuable advice is given gratis it may seem a man'sown fault if he should go astray. He only can say in his vindicationthat he faithfully determined for a time to govern himself in his secondvolume by the opinions passed upon his first; but he was soon brought toa stand by the contrariety of excellent counsel. One kindly advised himto avoid the ludicrous; another to shun the pathetic; a third assuredhim that he was tolerable at description, but cautioned him to leavenarrative alone; while a fourth declared that he had a very pretty knackat turning a story, and was really entertaining when in a pensive mood,but was grievously mistaken if he imagined himself to possess a spiritof humor.
Thus perplexed by the advice of his friends, who each in turn closedsome particular path, but left him all the world beside to range in,he found that to follow all their counsels would, in fact, be to standstill. He remained for a time sadly embarrassed, when all at once thethought struck him to ramble on as he had begun; that his work beingmiscellaneous and written for different humors, it could not be expectedthat any one would be pleased with the whole; but that if it shouldcontain something to suit each reader, his end would be completelyanswered. Few guests sit down to a varied table with an equal appetitefor every dish. One has an elegant horror of a roasted pig; anotherholds a curry or a devil in utter abomination; a third cannot toleratethe ancient flavor of venison and wild-fowl; and a fourth, of trulymasculine stomach, looks with sovereign contempt on those knick-knackshere and there dished up for the ladies. Thus each article is incondemned in its turn, and yet amidst this variety of appetites seldomdoes a dish go away from the table without being tasted and relished bysome one or other of the guests.
With these considerations he ventures to serve up this second volume inthe same heterogeneous way with his first; simply requesting the reader,if he should find here and there something to please him, to restassured that it was written expressly for intelligent readers likehimself; but entreating him, should he find anything to dislike, totolerate it, as one of those articles which the author has been obligedto write for readers of a less refined taste.
To be serious: The author is conscious of the numerous faults andimperfections of his work, and well aware how little he is disciplinedand accomplished in the arts of authorship. His deficiencies are alsoincreased by a diffidence arising from his peculiar situation. He findshimself writing in a strange land, and appearing before a publicwhich he has been accustomed from childhood to regard with the highestfeelings of awe and reverence. He is full of solicitude to deserve theirapprobation, yet finds that very solicitude continually embarrassing hispowers and depriving him of that case and confidence which are necessaryto successful exertion. Still, the kindness with which he is treatedencourages him to go on, hoping that in time he may acquire a steadierfooting; and thus he proceeds, half venturing, half shrinking, surprisedat his own good-fortune and wondering at his own temerity.
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