Ten Thousand Wonderful Things / Comprising whatever is marvellous and rare, curious, eccentric and extraordinary in all ages and nations

COMPRISING
WHATEVER IS MARVELLOUS AND RARE, CURIOUS ECCENTRIC AND EXTRAORDINARY IN ALL AGES AND NATIONS
ENRICHED WITH HUNDREDS OF AUTHENTIC ILLUSTRATIONS
EDITED BY EDMUND FILLINGHAM KING, M.A.
LONDON GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS, Limited BROADWAY, LUDGATE HILL MANCHESTER AND NEW YORK 1894
STANDARD WORKS OF REFERENCE . UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME.
LEMPRIÈRE'S CLASSICAL DICTIONARY. WALKER'S RHYMING DICTIONARY. MACKAY'S THOUSAND AND ONE GEMS OF ENGLISH POETRY. D'ISRAELI'S CURIOSITIES OF LITERATURE. BARTLETT'S FAMILIAR QUOTATIONS. CRUDEN'S CONCORDANCE TO THE BIBLE. THE FAMILY DOCTOR.

A Book of Wonders requires but a brief introduction. Our title-page tells its own tale and forms the best exposition of the contents of the volume.
Everything that is marvellous carries with it much that is instructive, and, in this sense, Ten Thousand Wonderful Things, may be made useful for the highest educational purposes. Events which happen in the regular course have no claim to a place in any work that professes to be a register of what is uncommon; and were we to select such Wonders only as are capable of familiar demonstration, we should destroy their right to be deemed wondrous, and, at the same time, defeat the very object which we profess to have in view. A marvel once explained away ceases to be a marvel. For this reason, while rejecting everything that is obviously fictitious and untrue, we have not hesitated to insert many incidents which appear at first sight to be wholly incredible.
In the present work, interesting Scenes from Nature, Curiosities of Art, Costume and Customs of a bygone period rather predominate; but we have devoted many of its pages to descriptions of remarkable Occurrences, beautiful Landscapes, stupendous Water-falls, and sublime Sea-pieces. It is true that some of our illustrations may not be beautiful according to the sense in which the word is generally used; but they are all the more curious and characteristic, as well as truthful, on that account; for whatever is lost of beauty, is gained by accuracy. What is odd or quaint, strange or startling, rarely possesses much claim to the picturesque and refined. Scrape the rust off an antique coin, and, while you make it look more shining, you invariably render it worthless in the eyes of a collector. To polish up a fact which derives its value either from the strangeness of its nature, or from the quaintness of its narration, is like the obliterating process of scrubbing up a painting by one of the old masters. It looks all the cleaner for the operation, but, the chances are, it is spoilt as a work of art.