Circumstances beyond my control prevented my seeing any proof of these pages. Such Latinized forms as behavior and favor; the misplaced hyphen on the first line of page 25; the double l in skilful (p. 138, last line but one); and the frequent suppression of the former of two parenthetical commas (as before I, p. 19, l. 18),—these are the few deviations from my manuscript for which the printer is responsible.
The reader will oblige by substituting comfortable for agreeable on page 38 line 3, sweet for lovely on page 68 line 4, and ignoramuses for ignorant on page 78 line 12.
I.
A Book of Discoveries.
WHAT more glorious than to open for one’s self a new career,—to appear suddenly before the learned world with a book of discoveries in one’s hand, like an unlooked-for comet blazing in the empyrean!
No longer will I keep my book in obscurity. Behold it, gentlemen; read it! I have undertaken and performed a forty-two days’ journey round my room. The interesting observations I have made, and the constant pleasure I have experienced all along the road, made me wish to publish my travels; the certainty of being useful decided the matter. And when I think of the number of unhappy ones to whom I offer a never failing resource for weary moments, and a balm for the ills they suffer, my heart is filled with inexpressible satisfaction. The pleasure to be found in travelling round one’s room is sheltered from the restless jealousy of men, and is independent of Fortune.
Surely there is no being so miserable as to be without a retreat to which he can withdraw and hide himself from the world. Such a hiding-place will contain all the preparations our journey requires.