Page:Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme.djvu/10

 increased their value; the more important of them will be found in the Appendix (I.) to the present volume, the initials "W. J. T." being affixed to them, as well as the page where they will be found in the Anecdotes. In his preface Mr. Thoms says that with one exception the selections differed from those made by Ellis, which last, "combined with those here printed, may be said to comprise everything deserving of publication contained in the volume."

Notwithstanding this dictum of one peculiarly able to form a judgment in the matter, the Folk-Lore Society determined, soon after its establishment, to print the whole MS. Mr. Thoms's book has long been unobtainable; the extracts in Time's Telescope were hardly known—I have met with no reference to them; so that all that could be considered available for general use was contained in Ellis's edition of Brand, and this represents but a small portion of the whole work. In the present volume a faithful transcript is offered to the reader. I have carefully collated the proofs with the original; and, although it would be presumption to suppose that no errors of transcription from the somewhat crabbed MS. have arisen, I hope that these are but few and unimportant.

The work in its printed form speaks for itself: I may however be allowed to point out one or two circumstances connected with it. The MS. was evidently intended by Aubrey as a rough draft of what was intended to have been an elaborate work. As it stands it is disjointed, and there are numerous