THE text is that of the edition of 1887, in which spell-
ing and punctuation have been modernized, and obvi-
ous errors corrected. Brown's spellings of proper
names, however (where they appear to be older or
variant forms and not mere misspellings), have been
retained. Forms like labour, honour, etc. (employed
throughout the 1887 edition, though Brown himself
was not consistent in them), are here changed to labor,
honor, etc.; and centre and theatre become center and
theater; a few other words have also been respelled.
Some departures have been made in the hyphenating
of words, to conform with more recent practice.

The edition of 1887 has used semicolons almost uni-
versally between main clauses, thus enhancing the
already staccato effect of Brown's prose. Where the
author has used commas in these situations, they are
here restored in a number of instances.

A careful collation with the first edition of 1799 has
resulted in the correction of several verbal errors.

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