The Protest of this eloquent Advocate for "The Pomp of learning and the Pride of words," did not discourage me from my purpose, which has never been the petty purpose of pleasing any Party, or any Profession ;neither has Avarice nor Ambition ever tempted me to injure any party, any profession, or any person. I have endeavoured to write Impartially if I have taught the Public how to judge of the Powers which a perfect Instrument ought to possess, I have also stated the difficulties which the Manufacturers have to encounter before they can make it perfect. I love the good advice given to us by QUINTILIAN, and have done my best to "write so perspicuously, that not only Every body may understand Me, but that it shall be impossible for Any body not to understand Me."-QUINT. lib. viii. I can say with the sage SENECA, "I have Learned only to be able to Teach.-The most interesting discovery would have no charms for me, if I only was to be the repository of it"-therefore, I have adopted in this Book, the plan which I originally contrived for "The Cook's Oracle," of assisting the Memory of the Reader by referring from one passage to another; without such References, my Book, to have been equally clearly understandable by Persons who have not previously studied the subject, must have been at least twice as big; and instead of being, as it is, compressed into a single snug Duodecimo, could have hardly been contained in a couple of cumbersome Octavos. I have been regardless of what Time or what Expense it has cost me to pro duce my Works-and it is a most cheering reflection to me, that the Confidence with which they have been received, has been commensurate with the Care that I have taken to compose them. WM. KITCHINER. London, 1825. |