Besides, when we meet such a title as the Gunpowder Plot, or any other
connected with general history, each reader, before he has seen the
book, has formed to himself some particular idea of the sort of manner
in which the story is to be conducted, and the nature of the amusement
which he is to derive from it. In this he is probably disappointed, and
in that case may be naturally disposed to visit upon the author or the
work, the unpleasant feelings thus excited. In such a case the literary
adventurer is censured, not for having missed the mark at which he
himself aimed, but for not having shot off his shaft in a direction he
never thought of.

On the footing of unreserved communication which the Author has
established with the reader, he may here add the trifling circumstance,
that a roll of Norman warriors, occurring in the Auchinleck Manuscript,
gave him the formidable name of Front-de-Boeuf.

Ivanhoe was highly successful upon its appearance, and may be said to
have procured for its author the freedom of the Rules, since he has ever
since been permitted to exercise his powers of fictitious composition in
England, as well as Scotland.

The character of the fair Jewess found so much favour in the eyes of
some fair readers, that the writer was censured, because, when arranging
the fates of the characters of the drama, he had not assigned the hand
of Wilfred to Rebecca, rather than the less interesting Rowena. But, not
to mention that the prejudices of the age rendered such an union almost
impossible, the author may, in passing, observe, that he thinks a
character of a highly virtuous and lofty stamp, is degraded rather than
exalted by an attempt to reward virtue with temporal prosperity. Such
is not the recompense which Providence has deemed worthy of suffering
merit, and it is a dangerous and fatal doctrine to teach young persons,
the most common readers of romance, that rectitude of conduct and of
principle are either naturally allied with, or adequately rewarded by,
the gratification of our passions, or attainment of our wishes. In a
word, if a virtuous and self-denied character is dismissed with temporal
wealth, greatness, rank, or the indulgence of such a rashly formed or
ill assorted passion as that of Rebecca for Ivanhoe, the reader will be
apt to say, verily Virtue has had its reward. But a glance on the great
picture of life will show, that the duties of self-denial, and the
sacrifice of passion to principl