Page:Manners and customs of ye Englyshe.djvu/9

 YE CONTRIBUTOR HYS PREFACE.

UPPOSE the great-grandfather of anybody could ſtep down from his picture-frame and ſtalk abroad, his deſcendant would be eager to hear his opinion of the world we live in. Moſt of us would like to know what the men of the Paſt; would ſay of the Preſent. If ſome old philoſopher, for inſtance, exchanging robes for modern clothes, leſt he ſhould be followed by the boys and taken up by the police, could reviſit this earth, walk our ſtreets, ſee our ſights, behold the ſcenes of our political and ſocial life, and, contemplating this buſtling age through the medium of his own quiet mind, ſet down his obſervations reſpecting us and our uſages, he would write a work, no doubt, very intereſting to her ſubjects.

It would anſwer the purpoſe of a ſkilful literary enchanter to "unſphere the ſpirit of ," or that of, , or any other diftinguiſhed ſage of antiquity, and ſend it out on its rambles with a commiſſion to take, and report, its views of things in general. But ſuch necromancy would have taſked even the Warlock of the North, would puzzle the