PUBLISHERS' ADVERTISEMENT.

umes.

THE present is the first volume of a reissue of the Works of Thomas De Quincey in twelve uniform volThe series is based upon the American Edition of De Quincey's Works, published originally in twentytwo volumes. After that edition was issued, a complete English edition was published in Edinburgh and was edited and revised in part by the author. This edition contained changes and additions, and the opportunity is now taken, in reissuing the American edition to incorporate the new material which appeared in the English edition. At the same time, the arrangement of the several productions will be more systematic and orderly than was possible when the collection was first made, at different intervals, under difficulties which render the work of the first editor especially praiseworthy. In the final volume, an introduction to the series will set forth the plan carried out in this new arrangement, and that volume will also contain a very full index to the entire series. Throughout the series, the notes of the editor will be distinguished from those of the author by being inclosed in brackets [ ].

FROM THE AUTHOR, TO THE AMERICAN EDITOR

OF HIS WORKS. *

THESE papers I am anxious to put into the hands of your house, and, so far as regards the U. S., of your house exclusively; not with any view to further emolument, but as an acknowledgment of the services which you have already rendered me; namely, first, in having brought together so widely scattered a collection, a difficulty which in my own hands by too painful an experience I had found from nervous depression to be absolutely insurmountable; secondly, in having made me a participator in the pecuniary profits of the American edition, without solicitation or the shadow of any expectation on my part, without any legal claim that I could plead, or equitable warrant in established usage, solely and merely upon your own spontaneous motion. Some of these new papers, I hope, will not be without their value in the eyes of those who have taken an interest in the original series. But at all events, good or bad, they are now tendered to the appropriation of your individual house, the MESSRS. TICKNOR AND FIELDS, according to the amplest extent of any power to make such a transfer that I may be found to possess by law or custom in America.

I wish this transfer were likely to be of more value. But the veriest trifle, interpreted by the spirit in which I offer it, may express my sense of the liberality manifested throughout this transaction by your honorable house.

Ever believe me, my dear sir,

Your faithful and obliged,

THOMAS DE QUINCEY.

* The stereotype plates of De Quincey's Works and the right of publication were transferred by TICKNOR AND FIELDS to JAMES R. OSGOOD AND Co., and by them to HURD AND HOUGHTON.

FROM THE AUTHOR TO THE READER.

1 HERE present you, courteous reader, with the record of a remarkable period of my life; according to my application of it, I trust that it will prove, not merely an interesting record, but, in a considerable degree, useful and instructive. In that hope it is that I have drawn it up; and that must be my apology for breaking through that delicate and honorable reserve, which, for the most part, restrains us from the public exposure of our own errors and infirmities. Nothing, indeed, is more revolting to English feelings, than the spectacle of a human being obtruding on our notice his moral ulcers, or scars, and tearing away that "decent drapery" which time, or indulgence to human frailty, may have drawn over them: accordingly, the greater part of our confessions (that is, spontaneous and extra-judicial confes.