Page:Martin Faber - the story of a criminal (IA martinfaber00simmrich).pdf/11

 The work which follows is submitted with great deference and some doubt to the reader. It is an experiment; and the style and spirit are, it is believed, something out of the beaten track. The events are of real occurrence, and, to the judgment of the author, the peculiarities of character which he has here drawn—if they may be considered such, which are somewhat too common to human society—are genuine and unexaggerated. The design of the work is purely moral, and the lessons sought to be inculcated are of universal application and importance. They go to impress upon us the necessity of proper and early education—they show the ready facility with which the best natural powers may be perverted to the worst purposes—they stim-