Excerpt from The Works, Vol. 12: Revised Corrected by the Author, With an Introductory Preface
The promises which we make to ourselves are those which are most frequently broken: just as we deceive ourselves much more constantly, much more impudently, and much more completely than we deceive others. Indeed, I believe the end of all will shew, that the human being we have most sinned against in all our follies and vices, is the one we love best.
I had promised myself to write an introductory preface to each volume of the present edition of my works, to take the public as it were by the hand into my library, and with that sort of familiarity which long acquaintance and much kindness (at least on our part) generates, to show my friends the interior of the workshop and the process of the work. Some six or seven volumes have appeared since I was first obliged to violate the promise I had thus made to myself, and suffer the works to go forth to the public without any other introduction than the favour with which they had been previously received. It was neither idleness nor caprice, however, which caused the deviation from my purpose. The circumstances were of that kind which might be dwelt upon in memoirs or biography, and might excite some interest in the tale of a life when it had been extinguished, but which would probably neither move, nor instruct, nor entertain at present. Suffice it here, that I went to the Continent, proposing to spend six weeks amongst scenes which I had known and loved in former years. The fate of Seged befel me.I was detained eighteen months far from my home. I had pictured to myself pleasure and amusement, relaxation and improved health.
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