550.
Is a preface 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 of 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.
Isaac D’Israeli.