WITH TCHERNAIEFF IN SERVIA. BY PHILIP H. B. SALUSBURY, PREFACE. A PREFACE ought to be short for two reasons: one is, because there are some people who read no other part of the book, and there is no need, therefore, for an author to trouble himself or herself in writing a long one; and the second is, because there are other people who never read the preface at all, and therefore, as in the first case, a long preface is needless. I write my preface in the form of a petition, and pray that mercy may be shown my feeble effort in book-making by those who have written books themselves, as, knowing their superior strength, I have no intention of entering the lists with them; and I beg those who have not yet ventured into the ocean of authorship, rendered so dangerous to traverse sometimes by the gales of adverse criticism, to show a |