Armadale

In acknowledgment of the services which he has rendered to the cause of literature by his "e;Life of Goldsmith;"e; and in affectionate remembrance of a friendship which is associated with some of the happiest years of my life. Readers in general on whose friendly reception experience has given me some reason to rely will, I venture to hope, appreciate whatever merit there may be in this story without any prefatory pleading for it on my part. They will, I think, see that it has not been hastily meditated or idly wrought out. They will judge it accordingly, and I ask no more. Readers in particular will, I have some reason to suppose, be here and there disturbed, perhaps even offended, by finding that "e;Armadale"e; oversteps, in more than one direction, the narrow limits within which they are disposed to restrict the development of modern fiction if they can. Nothing that I could say to these persons here would help me with them as Time will help me if my work lasts. I am not afraid of my design being permanently misunderstood, provided the execution has done it any sort of justice. Estimated by the clap-trap morality of the present day, this may be a very daring book. Judged by the Christian morality which is of all time, it is only a book that is daring enough to speak the truth. LONDON, April, 1866.