n and as gay, as various and as pleasing, as
these lively artists of versatility.

Nature herself is most delightful in her miscellaneous scenes. When I hold
a volume of miscellanies, and run over with avidity the titles of its
contents, my mind is enchanted, as if it were placed among the landscapes
of Valais, which Rousseau has described with such picturesque beauty. I
fancy myself seated in a cottage amid those mountains, those valleys,
those rocks, encircled by the enchantments of optical illusion. I look,
and behold at once the united seasons--"All climates in one place, all
seasons in one instant." I gaze at once on a hundred rainbows, and trace
the romantic figures of the shifting clouds. I seem to be in a temple
dedicated to the service of the Goddess VARIETY.

* * * * *

PREFACES.

I declare myself infinitely delighted by a preface. Is it exquisitely
written? no literary morsel is more delicious. Is the author inveterately
dull? it is a kind of preparatory information, which may be very useful.
It argues a deficiency in taste to turn over an elaborate preface unread;
for it is the attar of the author's roses; every drop distilled at an
immense cost. It is the reason of the reasoning, and the folly of the
foolish.

I do not wish, however, to conceal that several writers, as well as
readers, have spoken very disrespectfully of this species of literature.
That fine writer Montesquieu, in closing the preface to his "Persian
Letters," says, "I do not praise my 'Persians;' because it would be a very
tedious thing, put in a place already very tedious of itself; I mean a
preface." Spence, in the preface to his "Polymetis," informs us, that
"there is not any sort of writing which he sits down to with so much
unwillingness as that of prefaces; and as he believes most people are not
much fonder of reading them than he is of writing them, he shall get over
this as fast as he can." Pelisson warmly protested against prefatory
composition; but when he published the works of Sarrasin, was wise enough
to compose a very pleasing one. He, indeed, endeavoured to justify himself
for acting against his own opinions, by this ingenious excuse, that, like
funeral honours, it is proper to show the utmost regard for them when
given to others, but to be inattentive to them for ourselves.

Notwithstanding all this evidence, I have some good reasons for admiring
prefaces; and barren as the investigatio