INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR. WHEN my friend Dr. V— assented (and that very reluctantly) to my reiterated request that he would make known to the public the circumstances herein recorded, I felt myself unable to refuse compliance with the condition affixed by the doctor to this consent, viz., that I should arrange and edit these papers for the press. I have done so to the best of my ability, and the result is before the reader. For whatever awkwardness or ambiguity there may be in the form of it, the fault is mine. I hope that this confession may induce the doctor's gentle reader not to visit upon him the sins of his editor, but rather to regard him with a greater indulgence. The strange and somewhat painful confessions which occupy so large a portion of these pages, would appear to have been recorded in the hope that they might contribute at least some hints toward our neverending research into the moral anatomy of man. Literature of this kind is perhaps more congenial to the speculative thought of Germany than to the reading public of England. Still, I am not without a hope that the doctor's narrative may find among my countrymen some readers, whose opinion will justify the present undertaking on the part of his editor. Thus much in my own behalf. More I will not say, lest I should appear to be interpreting, without warrant, the intention of a writer who now, in his own person, claims the privilege of speaking for himself. OWEN MEREDITH. PART I. THE DOCTOR. Polonius. This is too long. Hamlet. It shall to the barber's with your beard. Hamlet, Act II., Scene 2. |