October 4, 1810, a credible study of the Seaborn (or Sea-Born)

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to this edition.      
THESE chapters were not intended to form a whole by themselves, and had their Author possessed the opportunities of health and leisure, it is impossible to say what additions he might have made. It is certain, however, that the publication of a revised and complete edition had frequently been in his contemplation.
   The Author had hoped that these chapters were to be only the first instalment of a credible study of the θάλασσογενηίς,—Sea-Born.
   I have taken the liberty of including a small collection of hand-written Notes the Author intended for a future complete Edition of the book. That these Notes are not drawn up with the care which the Author would have bestowed on them before he presented them to the publick eye, will be apparent to the Reader on the slightest comparison with the two Chapters, and I must ask the Reader’s forgiveness for their state. I have gathered the Notes from the Author’s private journal and marginalia in earlier works. However, I would not have included them without sufficient reason or need, primarily that if these Notes were not made publick, they would have been, in time, lost to all the world.
   Finally, it is common to all studies to be imperfect while they are in their infancy, and the Reader should not make an exception for the present work, nor fault the Author for at times, as Dryden says, looking “at the wrong side of the tapestry.”
      
THE AUTHOR, before his death, wished to convey his gratitude to two gentlemen; —the first, his friend and mentor, Professor J. W. Helmwhitt, and the second, a most virtuous, wise, and eloquent Gentleman of The Sea who, in the course of two years relating the histories, movements, and political structure of the Sea-Born to the Author, would only give his name as Telchines.


THE EDITOR  

Ipswich, Octr 4, 1810.

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