Go, little booke, God send thee good passage,
And specially let this be thy prayere,
Unto them all that thee will read or hear,
Where thou art wrong, after their help to call,
Thee to correct, in any part or all.

CHAUCER'S Bell Dame sans Mercie.

IN concluding a second volume of the Sketch-Book, the Au-
thor cannot but express his deep sense of the indulgence with
which his first has been received, and of the liberal disposition
that has been evinced to treat him with kindness as a stran-
ger. Even the critics, whatever may be said of them by oth-
ers, he has found to be a singularly gentle and good-natured
race; it is true that each has in turn objected to some one or
two articles, and that these individual exceptions, taken in
the aggregate, would amount almost to a total condemnation
of his work; but then he has been consoled by observing,
that what one has particularly censured, another has as partic-
ularly praised: and thus, the encomiums being set off against
the objections, he finds his work, upon the whole, commended
far beyond its deserts.

He is aware that he runs a risk of forfeiting much of this
kind favor by not following the counsel that has been liberally
bestowed upon him; for where abundance of valuable advice
is given gratis, it may seem a man's own fault if he should go
astray. He only can say, in his vindication, that he faithfully
determined, for a time, to govern himself in his second volume
by the opinions passed upon his first; but he was soon
brought to a stand by the contrariety of excellent counsel.

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