PREFACE.
There are several unimportant anachronisms in
these volumes. The Berlin park, at the time referred
to by the story, was not the exquisite promenade
it is at present; nor has any attempt been
made to paint the local costume or manners of the
period. It has been rather the intention of the
writer to illustrate a principle, and to record his
protest against a useless and barbarous custom;
which, to the shame of his own country, exists
there in a less modified form than the good sense
and good taste of European communities, to say
nothing of their moral and religious feeling, would
sanction elsewhere.
