"It has been my lot to have had my name introduced, both in conversation and in print, more frequently than I find it easy to explain, whether I find it easy to explain, whether I consider the fewness, unimportance and limited circulation of my writings, or the retirement and distance in which I have lived, both from the literary and political world" (Chapter I, pg. 1.)

"I am well aware that in advanced stages of literature when there exist many and excellent models, a high degree of talent, combined with taste and judgment and employed in works of imagination, will acquire for a man the name of a great genius, though even that analogon of genius which in certain states of society may even render his writings more popular than the absolute reality could have done would be sought for in vain in the mind and temper of the...