OR,
IN
ESSAYS AND CHARACTERS.
OR,
A PIECE OF THE WORLD
DISCOVERED;
IN
ESSAYS AND CHARACTERS
A Reprint of Dr. Bliss's Edition of 1811.
WITH A PREFACE AND SUPPLEMENTARY
APPENDIX
By S. T. IRWIN.
Bristol:
PUBLISHED BY W. CROFTON HEMMONS.
London:
Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., Ltd.
TO THE MEMORY
OF THE REVEREND DAVID WRIGHT,
"THE GRAVE DIVINE" OF THESE PAGES,
WHOSE NAME WILL LIVE IN BRISTOL
AS LONG AS MEN CARE FOR BEAUTY OF CHARACTER,
RICHNESS OF THOUGHT, OR DISTINCTION OF SPEECH,
THIS BRISTOL REPRINT IS INSCRIBED.
"From the contagion of the world's slow stain
He was secure."
It may be reasonably asked why Dr. Bliss's[A] edition of theMicrocosmography should require a preface, and the answer is that it doesnot require one. It would be difficult to have a more scholarly, moreadequate, more self-sufficing edition of a favourite book. Almosteverything that helps the elucidation of the text, almost everything aboutBishop Earle that could heighten our affection for him (there is nothingknown to his disparagement) is to be found here.[B] And affection for theeditor[viii] is conciliated by the way. It is not only his standard ofequipment that secures this—a standard that might have satisfied MarkPattison[C]—but also the painstaking love revealed in it, which, likeevery other true love, whether of men or books, will not give of thatwhich costs it nothing. And, as a further title to our regard, Dr. Blissis amusing at his own expense, and compares himself to Earle's "critic,"who swells books into folios with his comments. Not that this humorousself-depreciation is to be pressed; for, unlike that critic, he is no"troublesome vexer of the dead."
But though there is no need of a preface, I have two excuses for writingone.
The first is that I was asked to do it by my friend Mr. Frank George, ofBristol, who wished to see the book reprinted; and the[ix] second is the oldprofessio pietatis, which seemed to Tacitus a sufficient defence of theAgricola, and may perhaps be allowed to serve humbler people as well. WhatEarle says of men is no less true of books: "Acquaintance is the firstdraught of a friend. Men take a degree in our respect till at last theywholly possess us;" and the history of this possession must, in everycase, have a sort of interest, as long as it is not carried to the pointof demanding from others the superlatives we permit to ourselves. It issufficiently common for people to like the same book for differentreasons; and where an author has a secure place in English literature, hisshade, like the deity of Utopia, may b