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PREFACE
T o t h e R e a d e r .—W h a t this book wants is not a
simple Preface but an apology, and a very brilliant
and convincing one a t that. Recognising this fully,
and feeling quite incompetent to write such a m a ste rpiece,
I have asked several literary friends to write
one for me, bu t they have kindly bu t firmly declined,
stating th a t it is impossible satisfactorily to apologise
for my liberties with Lindley Murray and th e Q u e en ’s
English. I am therefore left to make a feeble
apology for this book myself, and all I can personally,
say is th a t it would have been much worse th a n it is
had it not been for Dr. H en ry Guillemard, who has n o t
edited it, or of course th e whole affair would have
been better, b u t who has most kindly gone th ro u g h
the proof sheets, lassoing prepositions which were
straying outside their sentence stockade, tak in g my
