Great Mysteries and Little Plagues

Great Mysteries and Little Plagues

I hate prefaces; and the older I grow, the more I hate them, and the more unwilling I am to transgressin that waywith my eyes open. But something must be said, I suppose, if only by way of an advertisement, or warning. When I had finished what one of my daughters persists in calling my "Naughty-Biography," and the other, "Personalities"while my hair has grown visibly thinner, I will not say under what kind of domestic remonstrance from another quarter, and a very amiable, though witty somebody writes it "Maundering Recollections"I had an idea that, if I went further, I might be found "painting the lily, gilding refined gold," etc., etc., and so I pulled upfor the present. But this little book was already under way. I had promised it, and such promises I always keepand for the best of reasons: I cannot afford to break them. When I turned out the original of "ChildrenWhat are they good for?" some forty years ago, or thereabouts, I had never met with, nor heard of, anything in that way. Children were overlooked. Their droppings were unheededout of the nursery. But now, and in fact very soon after my little essay appeared in the "Atlantic Souvenir," if I do not mistake, the papers and magazines, both abroad and at home, were continually brightened up with diamond-sparks and with Down-easterly or "Orient pearls, at random strung," which seemed to have been picked up in play-grounds, or adrift, or along the highway; and itemizers were seen dodging round among the little folks, wherever they were congregated, or following them as the Chinese follow a stranger, if they see him make wry faces. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 34865
Author: Neal, John
Release Date: Jan 7, 2011
Format: eBook
Language: English