In truth, these are but the readings of a literary vagrant.
One book led to another, one study to another. The first was
published with trepidation. Since no bones were broken, the
second was launched with greater confidence. So, by
insensible degrees, a young man of our generation acquires,
in his own eyes, a kind of roving judicial commission through
the ages; and, having once escaped the perils of the Freemans
and the Furnivalls, sets himself up to right the wrongs of
universal history and criticism. Now, it is one thing to
write with enjoyment on a subject while the story is hot in
your mind from recent reading, coloured with recent
prejudice; and it is quite another business to put these
writings coldly forth again in a bound volume. We are most
of us attached to our opinions; that is one of the "natural
affections" of which we hear so much in youth; but few of us
are altogether free from paralysing doubts and scruples. For
my part, I have a small idea of the degree of accuracy
possible to man, and I feel sure these studies teem with
error. One and all were written with genuine interest in the
subject; many, however, have been conceived and finished with
imperfect knowledge; and all have lain, from beginning to
end, under the disadvantages inherent in this style of
writing.
Of these disadvantages a word must here be said.
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