NOTES ON NOSES.

BY

EDEN WARWICK.

“‘Mayhap there is more meant than is said in it,’ quoth my father. ‘Learned men, brother Toby, don’t write dialogues upon Long Noses for nothing.’”—Tristram Shandy.

NEW EDITION.

LONDON:

RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.

1864.

With regard to a Preface to his Book, an Authorhas to contend with three great, but unequal, difficulties.The first and greatest, is to persuade hisPublisher to issue it without a Preface; the next,is to write one himself; and the third and least, isto get some one to write it for him. Now there is awise old saw which says, “Of divers evils choose theleast;” and as the learned Slawkenbergius (so saysTristram Shandy) has prefaced his FOLIO on Noseswith a clause which exactly explains our own qualificationsand reasons for writing on the same importantsubject, we invoke him to relieve us of thethird difficulty: “‘ever since I understood,’ quothSlawkenbergius, ‘anything—or rather what was what,—andcould perceive that the point of Long Noseshad been too loosely handled by all who had gonebefore—have I, Slawkenbergius, felt a strong impulse,with a mighty and irresistible call within me,to gird up myself to this undertaking.’”

ivNow this is exactly our own case, and must,therefore, suffice for our Preface; nevertheless, wecannot flatter ourselves that our brief hints will beeulogized, like the gigantic folio of Hafen Slawkenbergius,as “an institute of all that is necessary tobe known of Noses.” It professes to be nothingmore than an introduction to the subject of Nasology;written originally for the use of friends, and afterwardsextended for publication. This will accountfor some discrepancies which may be perceptible inthe style—discrepancies which it was thought bestnot to remove, as the additions were on subjects ofa more grave and important character than theoriginal sketch; and, therefore, the diversities ofstyle appeared to be rather consistent and advantageous.

May 26, 1848.