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PREFACE.

A YOUNG man of some parts, and more pretension, is said to have remarked to Dean Swift, "Dean, I intend to set up for a wit!" To which replied Dean Swift, "Then, sir, you had better sit down again!" I was reminded of this certainly trite, but always suggestive, anecdote this very morning, when an Exigent Necessity reminded me that I must write a preface for the Third Volume of TEMPLE BAR; and my shrinking self interposed, "Don't do any thing of the kind!" Of the making of books and of prefaces there is seemingly no end; but I may lead indirectly towards the cessation of a baneful practice by withholding at least my mite from the stock of Wörte ohne Sinn. Supposing that, in lieu of attempting to say a great deal when I have scarcely any thing to say, I content myself with mentioning two simple facts. This is the Twelfth Number of TEMPLE BAR; and just one year has elapsed since a now prosperous, established, and progressive Magazine first loomed hazily on the literary horizon. This is to be taken as Fact Number One. For the Second, it is to be recorded that TEMPLE BAR has gained troops of literary friends, and, with the exception of a Scotch gentleman,—and even he has been conciliated, not one enemy. Surely these facts speak volumes, or enough, at least, to serve for a Preface to the Third Volume of TEMPLE BAR.

GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA.

UPTON COURT, BUCKS,

October 1861.

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