ILLUSTRATIONS

OF

HUMAN LIFE.

PRINTED BY A. BELIN, 55, RUE STE. ANNE.

ILLUSTRATIONS

OF

HUMAN LIFE.

BY

THE AUTHOR OF "TREMAINE," ETC. "DE VERE.”

"I can truly say, that of all the papers 1 have blotted, which have
been a good deal in my time, I have never written any thin g
for the public without the intention of some public good.
Whether I have succeeded or not, is not my part to judge.”—
SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE.

PREFACE.

My publisher tells me I ought to write a Preface to these Sketches. Why, I know not; for I have no particular account to give of them, further than this, that although they are the genuine observations that occurred to my mind-in my passage through the world-upon men and things in general, the character of individuality does not belong to them. In this, the moral painter may be compared to the painter of nature. The hills and valleys, the trees, the waters, the flowers, and the cottages in a landscape may all belong to known genera, yet the specific landscape itself may never have been seen.

These sketches, however, are no more than what any man who has lived long, and not shut his eyes, must have marked as well as myself. But as it is not everybody that has lived long, or that takes the trouble of opening his eyes-or, if he does, of committing to memory what he has seen-the endeavour to do this may be thought not unuseful to those who would rather read, than observe. How this has been executed, is a very different, and, to me, a very fearful question. In fact, it is with apprehension that I again encounter the world's eye. The success of Tremaine and 'De Vere,' (for, without disputing the various criticisms that were made upon them, I may venture to say they were successful,) has made any new attempt at public notice, on my part, hazardous, and perhaps impolitic.

6

I ought to have set before me the Just sentiments (by the bye, not the practice) of the charming author of a most charming Romance- "Je résolus en effet de me tenir là, et ne pas risquer, par une seconde publication, de détruire l'espèce de prestige qui semblait attaché à la première. Il ne faut pas fatiguer le bonheur, il échappe si facilement !" (1.)

Why, then, I have not yielded to this prudent advice, is a question which I do not feel it very comfortable to answer; for I was not even "obliged by hunger," or "request of friends." It is, indeed, true that abundant leisure after a busy life, and the necessity of seeking a diversion of thought from reflections prompted by long and severe illness, and still more severe domestic calamities, may be deemed a fair excuse for committing these ebulli

(1) Mad. de Montolieu, Preface to Caroline.