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, which you would find uninteresting at any age; and there are, also, quaint or curious expressions, which would not be pleasing to your differently educated ears:—these I have omitted altogether, except when I felt that they would preserve the old character of the narration, and not be too old-fashioned to be misunderstood by you.

Some of Chaucer's Tales, also, are of so coarse and indelicate a character, as to be unfit for perusal; and this circumstance, more perhaps than his antiquated dialect, has contributed to raise so great a prejudice against his writings in general, in the minds of parents and instructors, as altogether to prohibit their being read by young persons: but, as a distaste for vice will assuredly keep pace with our love of virtue, so a well regulated and delicately instructed mind will no more crave after and feed upon impure writings, than a healthy and natural stomach will desire and select carrion or dirt.