TO THE ELEVENTH EDITION.

The author is free to acknowledge, that since this treatise first
ventured on the wave of public opinion, the gales of patronage which
have waited it along, have been far more favorable than he had reason to
anticipate. Had any one, on its first appearance, predicted, that the
demand for it would call forth _twenty-two thousand_ copies during the
past year, the author would have considered the prediction extravagant
and chimerical. In gratitude, therefore, to that public which has smiled
so propitiously on his humble efforts to advance the cause of learning,
he has endeavored, by unremitting attention to the improvement of his
work, to render it as useful and as unexceptionable as his time and
talents would permit.

It is believed that the _tenth_ and _eleventh_ editions have been
greatly improved; but the author is apprehensive that his work is not
yet as accurate and as much simplified as it may be. If, however, the
disadvantages of lingering under a broken constitution, and of being
able to devote to this subject only a small portion of his time,
snatched from the active pursuits of a business life, (_active_ as far
as his imperfect health permits him to be,) are any apology for its
defects, he hopes that the candid will set down the apology to his
credit. This personal allusion is hazarded with the additional hope,
that it will ward off some of the arrows of criticism which may be aimed
at him, and render less pointed and poisonous those that may fall upon
him. Not that he would beg a truce with the gentlemen critics and
reviewers. Any compromise with them would betray a want of