PREFACE.
The chief beauty of this book lies not so much in its literary style , or in the extent and usefulness of the information it conveys , as in its simple truthfulness . Its pages form the record of events that really happened . All that has been done is to colour them ; and , for this , no extra charge has been made . George and Harris and Montmorency are not poetic ideals , but things of flesh and blood—especially George , who weighs about twelve stone . Other works may excel this in dept of thought and knowledge of human nature: other books may rival it in originality and size ; but , for hopeless and incurable veracity , nothing yet discovered can surpass it . This , more than all its other charms , will , it is felt , make the volume precious in the eye of the earnest reader ; and will lend additional weight to the lesson that the story teaches .
London , August , 1889.
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