after the
great blow to his health and fortunes.]

"Navis quae, tibi creditum
Debes Virgilium...
Reddas incolumem!"

"O ship, thou owest to us Virgil! Restore in
safety him whom we intrusted to thee."

You, I feel assured, will not deem it presumptuous in one who, to
that bright and undying flame which now streams from the gray hills
of Scotland,--the last halo with which you have crowned her literary
glories,--has turned from his first childhood with a deep and unrelaxing
devotion; you, I feel assured, will not deem it presumptuous in him to
inscribe an idle work with your illustrious name,--a work which, however
worthless in itself, assumes something of value in his eyes when thus
rendered a tribute of respect to you.

THE AUTHOR OF "EUGENE ARAM."

LONDON, December 22, 1831.

PREFACE TO THE EDITION OF 1831.

Since, dear Reader, I last addressed thee, in "Paul Clifford," nearly
two years have elapsed, and somewhat more than four years since, in
"Pelham," our familiarity first began. The Tale which I now submit to
thee differs equally from the last as from the first of those works; for
of the two evils, perhaps it is even better to disappoint thee in a new
style than to weary thee with an old. With the facts on which the
tale of "Eugene Aram" is founded, I have exercised the common and fair
license of writers of fiction it is chiefly the more homely parts of the
real story that have been altered; and for what I have added, and what
omitted, I have the sanction of all established authorities, who have
taken greater liberties with characters yet more recent, and far more
protected by historical recollections. The book was, for the most part,
written in the early part of the year, when the interest which the task
created in the Author was undivided by other subjects of excitement, and
he had leisure enough not only to be 'nescio quid meditans nugarum,' but
also to be 'totes in illis.'

["Not only to be meditating I know not what of trifles, but also to
be wholly engaged on them."]

I originally intended to adapt the story of Eugene Aram to the Stage.
That design was abandoned when more than half completed; but I wished to
impart to this Romance something of the nature of Tragedy,--something
of the more transferable of its qualities. Enough of this: it is not the
Author's wishes, but the Author's books that the world will judge him
by. Perhaps, then (with