Instead of a Book, by a Man Too Busy to Write One

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. Instead of a book I hear the reader exclaim, as he picks up this volume and glances at its title why, it is a book. To all appearance, yes; essentially, no. It is, to be sure, an assemblage within a cover of printed sheets consecutively numbered but this alone does not constitute a book. A book, properly speaking, is first Of all a thing of unity and symmetry, of order and finish it is a literary structure, each part of which is subordinated to the whole and created for it. To satisfy sucha standard this volume does not pretend it is not a structure, but an afterthought, a more or less coherent arrangement, each part of which was created almost without reference to any other. Yet not quite so, after all other wise even the smallest degree oi coherence were scarcely possible.

Instead of a book I hear the reader exclaim, as he picks up this volume and glances at its title why, it is a book. To all appearance, yes; essentially, no. It is, to be sure, an assemblage within a cover of printed sheets consecutively numbered but this alone does not constitute a book. A book, properly speaking, is first Of all a thing of unity and symmetry, of order and finish it is a literary structure, each part of which is subordinated to the whole and created for it. To satisfy sucha standard this volume does not pretend it is not a structure, but an afterthought, a more or less coherent arrangement, each part of which was created almost without reference to any other. Yet not quite so, after all other wise even the smallest degree oi coherence were scarcely possible.