adieus. For thee, who hast gone with me
through the motley course of my confessions, I would fain trust that I
have sometimes hinted at thy instruction when only appearing to strive
for thy amusement. But on this I will not dwell; for the moral insisted
upon often loses its effect, and all that I will venture to hope is,
that I have opened to thee one true, and not utterly hacknied, page
in the various and mighty volume of mankind. In this busy and restless
world I have not been a vague speculator, nor an idle actor. While all
around me were vigilant, I have not laid me down to sleep--even for the
luxury of a poet's dream. Like the school boy, I have considered study
as study, but action as delight.

Nevertheless, whatever I have seen, or heard, or felt, has been
treasured in my memory, and brooded over by my thoughts. I now place the
result before you,

"Sicut meus est mos, Nescio quid meditans nugarum;--
but not, perhaps,--totus in illis."

Whatever society--whether in a higher or lower grade--I have portrayed,
my sketches have been taken rather as a witness than a copyist; for I
have never shunned that circle, nor that individual, which presented
life in a fresh view, or man in a new relation. It is right, however,
that I should add, that as I have not wished to be an individual
satirist, rather than a general observer, I have occasionally, in the
subordinate characters (such as Russelton and Gordon), taken only the
outline from truth, and filled up the colours at my leisure and my will.

With regard to myself I have been more candid. I have not only
shewn--non parca manu--my faults, but (grant that this is a much rarer
exposure) my foibles; and, in my anxiety for your entertainment, I have
not grudged you the pleasure of a laugh--even at my own expense. Forgive
me, then, if I am not a fashionable hero--forgive me if I have not wept
over a "blighted spirit," nor boasted of a "British heart;" and allow
that, a man, who, in these days of alternate Werters and Worthies, is
neither the one nor the other, is, at least, a novelty in print, though,
I fear, common enough in life.

And, now my kind reader, having remembered the proverb, and in saying
one word to thee, having said two for myself, I will no longer detain
thee. Whatever thou mayest think of me and my thousand faults, both as
an author, and a man, believe me it is with a sincere and affectionate
wish for the accomplishment of my parting words, that I bid
t