Excerpt from Recollections of Foreign Travel, on Life, Literature, and Self-Knowledge, Vol. 1 of 2 I DO not think a long preface to these letters necessary. Their title will, I trust, be found to announce their contents justly. On every new book the trite question, cm' bono? May perhaps be fairly asked. I take for granted, that every literary production ought either to inform the understanding, or delight the imagination, or touch the heart. Or, perhaps, there is an inferior sort of merit, which may be just endured; this is the merit of doing no more than merely refreshing the memory. I may be permitted here to anticipate to the reader an observation or two, which I have made in my closing letter. I have remarked, that three things would make perfection in the matter of a book; that is. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.