Bout nine years ago I said in my haste, 'i will write a complete record of the Pointer.' Ever since I have been hunting up the materials, at home and abroad, and to aid the pursuit have been obliged to learn from its commencement the language of one of the countries involved in my research.

I do not make mention of these labours in a grumbling spirit, but simply to prove that I have worked hard at the historical part of my subject; and, partly to substantiate my claim, partly to help others bent on kindred studies, I have added, in an appendix, a complete list of all the books that I have consulted. In this list I cannot, of course, guarantee that, despite diligent endeavour, my dates are in all cases those of the first editions; but I have myself verified all my references, and have made all the translations except the German ones, which are the work of my friend, Miss L. Smythe, a lady in whose accuracy I have every confidence. I believe these selections to be undistorted by any bias, and not plucked unduly from their contexts; while in the renderings of foreign passages, fidelity rather than elegance has been aimed at. It was my wish to place the original texts in an appendix, but I have been dissuaded on the ground of cumbrousness.

I trust that my reiterated introduction of dates and names of reference will not irritate the hyper-sensitive reader; but I myself have suffered so grievously by the absence of such details from the pages of others, that I resolved at any risk to be guiltless of similar sins of omission.

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