ENGLISH LITERATURE; FIFTY IN PROSE AND FIFTY IN VERSE: accompanied with A VARIETY OF NOTES, for the Use of THE INHABITANTS OF THE NETHERLANDS} BY B. S. NAYLER, Teacher of CALIGRAPHY, ELOCUTION, & STENOGRAPHY. Published by NAYLER & Co. English-Booksellers, Price Two Guilders, Sewed. This Volume does not, in its nature, require any Dedication; but I choose to embrace so favorable an opportunity of making known to the Public how much I have been indebted to your Countenance, in my profession; to acknowledge, with unfeigned sincerity my deep sense of the Interest you have been pleased to take in my welfare; and to tell the World, that you have given repeated proofs of my being honored with your Friendship. The many handsome things you have said to me, and the very flattering things you have said of me during the last two Winter Seasons lead me to suppose, that you will not be offended at my Dedicating these sheets to One who has so disinterestedly laid obligation on obligation upon, Your very grateful, May, 1830. and most obedient Servant, When I commenced Publishing these Sheets, I intended to have given a very different Selection to the one now presented; I purposed inserting several rare and some unpublished pieces, both in Prose and Poetry; but finding that very few Copies were ordered, notwithstanding the numbers that were used, I was under the necessity of selecting other Pieces, in order to lessen the Expense of Printing; for (strange to say!) the number of Subscribers to this Collection falls short of FIFTY the Amsterdam and Leyden Subscribers united! and it is painful to a generous mind to record, that many Copies of the Work have been destroyed by persons taking away Odd Sheetssome, probably, without reflecting that each deficient Sheet was, to me, the total loss of a Volume whether such Sheets were taken with or without consideration, it is not for me to determine; but I know, that had I been guilty of taking away what did not belong to me, I should have considered it my Duty to have paid for as many Sets as I had broken; nor can I look upon that conduct in Others favorably, which I should condemn in myself. No one was obliged to Subscribe to this Collection, nor was any one solicited to Subscribe; and no one had a right to take away any Sheets, nor had any one my permission to do so. what I have thought proper to say on this subject, I trust that the Subscribers will not accuse me of Impertinence, nor the Transgressors of Flattery. I have had all the Trouble, and it is therefore, perhaps, that I must sustain all the Loss Gain I did not expect, nor could I anticipate that my Loss would have been so considerable In it V.. is, however, another Lesson learned by experience, and may be of use hereafter; therefore, I will not repine; but endeavour to console myself with the Commendations which have already been passed upon the Selection, by several of my respected Subscribers. Wishing you as much pleasure in the perusal, as I have had trouble in furnishing the following pages, I am, The following Pieces were printed expressly for the benefit of the Subscribers to a Course of Lectures, the Heads of which are inserted in the Order they were delivered, in Amsterdam and in Leyden, during the last Winter Season. Most of the Pieces I Read before the Two Societies, which may account for their arrangement in this Volume: many of them are well written; and contain Instruction and Amusement sufficient to entitle the Volume to Public regard. Whatever benefit or gratification you may enjoy from perusing the following pages, you will be pleased to attribute to the respective Writers; and whatever disagreeables you may meet with, place them to the account of May, 1830. THE COMPILER. |