Produced by Lionel Sear
"For knighthood is not in the feats of warre,
As for to fight in quarrel right or wrong,
But in a cause which truth can not defarre
He ought himself for to make sure and strong
Justice to keep mixt with mercy among:
And no quarrell a knight ought to take
But for a truth, or for a woman's sake."
A hundred and fifty episodes, two sermons, and a number of moraldigressions, have been omitted from this story.
The late ingenious Mr. Fett (whose acquaintance you will make in thefollowing pages), having been commissioned by Mr. Dodsley, thepublisher, to write a conspectus of the Present State of the Arts inItaly at two guineas the folio—a fair price for that class of work—had delivered close upon two hundred folios before Mr. Dodsleyinterposed, professing unbounded admiration of the work, its style,and matter, but desiring to know when he might expect the end:"For," said he, "I have other enterprises which will soon bedemanding attention, and, as a business-man, I like to make myarrangements in good time." To this Mr. Fett replied, that he, forhis part, being well content with the rate of remuneration, did notpropose to end the work at all!—and, the agreement, havingunaccountably failed to stipulate for any such thing as a conclusion,Mr. Dodsley had to compound for one at a crippling price.
So this story had, in Browning's phrase, "grown old along with me,"but for the forethought of Messrs. Smith, Elder and Co., in limitingits serial flow to twelve numbers of The Cornhill MagazineAs it is, I have added a few chapters; but a hundred and fiftyepisodes remain unwritten, with the courtships of Mr. Priske, and thefuneral oration spoken by the Rev. Mr. Grylls over the cenotaph OfSir John Constantine in Constantine Parish Church. These omissions,however, may be remedied if you will ask the publishers for anotheredition.
Now, if it be objected against some of the adventures of Sir JohnConstantine that they are extravagant, or against some of his notionsthat they are fantastic, I answer that this book attempts to describea man and not one of these calculable little super men who, of late,have been taking up so much more of your attention than they deserve.Students who engage in psychical research, as it is called, oftenconfess themselves puzzled by the behaviour of ghosts, it appears tothem wayward and trivial. How much more likely are ghosts to bepuzzled by the actions of real men? And we are surely ghosts if wekeep nothing of the blood which sent our fathers like schoolboys tothe crusades.
Lastly, my friend, if you would know anything of the writer who hasso often addressed you under an initial, you may find as much of himhere as in any of his books. Here is interred part, at any rate, ofthe soul of the Bachelor Q, in a book which, though it tell ofadventures, I would ask you not to disdain, though you be a boy nolonger. An acquaintance of mine near the Land's End had aremarkably fine tree of apples—to be precise, of Cox's OrangePippins—and one night was robbed of the whole of them. But what,think you, had the thief left behind him, at the foot of the tree?Why, a pair of gold-rimmed spectacles.