ESSAYS ON MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS: HISTORICAL, MORAL, AND POLITICAL. BY JAMES NAPIER BAILEY. LEEDS: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY JOSHUA HOBSON, 5, MARKET STREET 1842. NOTE TO THE BINDER.-The title page on the other side of this leaf, is the general title of the work. The binder will please to cut all the other titles away from the Numbers, and he will find the paging go on in regular succession. PR 99 334 PREFACE. In introducing the following volume of Essays to the notice of the public, I neither claim indulgence, nor deprecate criticism. If the Essays be calculated to improve, instruct, and edify mankind, they are sure of obtaining all the patronage and approbation they deserve; but if, on the contrary, they are valueless, I do not desire to see them obtain an extensive circulation; nor do I wish their faults to be treated leniently by the philosopher or the critic. I have been induced to publish them because I thought they would serve as media through which I might lay my thoughts before the public on many important subjects. These thoughts are now before the world, and the reader may judge for himself whether they are true or false, useful or pernicious. I have only to add that several Essays in the subsequent volume are not productions of my own pen, but written by literary friends of mine whose friendship I prize, and whose assistance I duly appreciate. THE AUTHOR. |