has been viewed by the periodical press.

To his numerous readers, in the capacity of an author, he would say
Farewell, did not the "everlasting adieus," everlastingly repeated, warn
him that he might at some future time be subject to the same infirmity,
only rendered more conspicuous by weakness and irresolution.

Rochdale, _October_ 1831.




INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND SERIES.


No method has yet been discovered for preserving the recollection of
human actions and events precisely as they have occurred, whole and
unimpaired, in all their truth and reality. Time is an able teacher of
causes and qualities, but he setteth little store by names and persons,
or the mould and fashion of their deeds. The pyramids have outlived the
very names of their builders. "Oblivion," says Sir Thomas Browne,
"blindly scatters her poppies. Time has spared the epitaph of Adrian's
horse--confounded that of himself!"

Few things are so durable as the memory of those mischiefs and
oppressions which Time has bequeathed to mankind. The names of
conquerors and tyrants have been faithfully preserved, while those from
whom have originated the most useful and beneficial discoveries are
entirely unknown, or left to perish in darkness and uncertainty. We
should not have known that Lucullus brought cherries from the banks of