FIVE YEARS OF IT.

BY

ALFRED AUSTIN.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

LONDON:

J. F. HOPE, 16, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET.

1858.

ACF

PREFACE.

GENIUS," 'tis said, "is Patience." An altogether opposite idea has got abroad this rapid age; and yet Buffon's definition, I warrant, is not far from truth.

No Preface ought to contain more than two short paragraphs. Was it worth while penning thus much in order to say (with all humility) that this book has been twice rewritten? And will the result only be, that severe critics would there were more of them! — will exclaim, "Pity 'twas not written a fourth time"? Any way, I submit. The majority are never wrong.