PREFACE.
In presenting a work of fiction by a new candidate
for public favour, courtesy should induce the
author to submit a fitting cause for obtruding himself
in a circle rendered illustrious by an array of talent
and virtue unsurpassed in any other walk of literature.
Claiming no pretensions to equality with the
master spirits who so worthily wield the sceptre in
the empire of imagination, the author of the present
volumes presumes but to follow at an humble distance
the more distinguished of his contemporaries,
and is rather a worshipper at their shrine than a
pretender to rivalry near the throne.
Whether he has attained even partial success is
not for him to determine. The theme chosen, and
the period selected for its illustration, renders the
work amenable to universal criticism. That the
general knowledge of the times and scenes imbodied
in the tale has its disadvantages, will not be
denied. Independent of the facility with which the
reader can detect errors, the very familiarity of the
subject tends to divest it of some of the most attractive
attributes of a work of imagination. In tracing
events supposed to have existed in the more renowned
sections of the Old World; in reproducing
the poets, statesmen, or sages who have figured in
their annals; and in sketching scenes which the imagination
of youth and the memory of age combine
to invest with the colours of the rainbow, the author
can deviate somewhat from fidelity of outline and
truth of detail without detracting materially from the
general interest of the narrative. The learned critic,
it is true, may expose defects and prove discrepancies;
but his dictum either fails to arrest attention,
or is drowned in the shouts of general applause.
The vicissitudes in the history of the principal personage
of the tale are such as have befallen many
in the struggle for eminence; and if their delineation
should instil into the breasts of any of his countrymen
fortitude under privations and perseverance
under difficulties, the author will not have written in
vain.
