OR SKETCHES FROM LIFE. SECOND SERIES. Full of wise saws and modern instances.-SHAKSPEARE. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. PHILADELPHIA: H. C. CAREY AND I. LEA, CHESTNUT STREET. 1825. PREFACE. THE Success of the first series of SAYINGS AND DOINGS, having induced me to publish a second, I avail myself of the opportunity thus afforded me, of saying a word or two upon the strange propensity in some persons to snatch at every cap exposed to public view, and clap it on their own heads as their ex clusive property. Nothing can be more silly than for men to attract the attention of the world to their failings, by identifying themselves with every imaginary portrait of knave or fool, which may appear in black and white before the public; but there is no remedy for such an epidemic. I have no doubt that in printing the following additional sheets, I shall furnish fresh materials for caps, and I have no desire to prevent any gentleman from fitting on as many of them as in his discretion he may think proper. But in one instance, as to what is past, it is perhaps necessary to say a word or two, somewhat more seriously upon the subject. An individual, who, a year or two since, was much spoken of in fashionable society, has thought proper, not only to put a cap upon his head, out of my last Series, which was never made for him, but to persevere in drawing public attention to the nicety of the fit; after having received the most unquestionable evidence that he never entered my mind while I was wri. ting the story. I do not here repeat the denial, for any purpose whatever, but to dispel any doubt about the sincerity of my first assertion. That there may be certain points or incidents, perhaps situations, in the life of MR. BURTON DANVERS, which correspond with the history of the gentleman in question, is not only possible but probable. This is only the consequence of drawing upon nature for materials. One man differs so little from another in reasoning and conduct, under similar circumstances, that it is scarcely possible to exclude the individual from all resemblance to the genus described. That this is most true, it is clear; for I am told, that I have been suspected by some, of intending BURTON DANVERS for a totally different person; a man of rank and high birth, whose friends good-naturedly appropriated the same cap to his use; but I believe he had too much good sense, either to put it on, or hand it round to his acquaintance, to decide whether it would suit him or not. At all events, I really do think that the character of MR. BURTON DANVERS, faulty as he may be, would |