V. In the arrangement of my Travels I have adopted the least ambitious of all forms,-that of a journal; to which several reasons determined me: first, though greater brevity might perhaps have been attained by rejecting, after the manner of Volney, every thing of a personal nature, other and still greater inconveniences than the addition of a few pages to the work might have arisen from this plan; for, materials so arranged have, to many, the appearance of a series of unconnected dissertations rather than a book of travels; and thus the interest would be diminished. Secondly, having written my descriptions on the spot, while the objects were before me, or fresh in my memory, to cast them into any other shape, without destroying their resemblance to the things described, in which consists, perhaps, their only merit, seemed hardly practicable. Lastly, narrative, from which what personally relates to the author is not wholly excluded, seems, in works of this kind, to be the form most generally approved. Since, therefore, much is gained, and nothing need be lost, by conforming to the rules which appear to have been established by public taste, I have, as far as possible, strictly adhered to the common method, noting down daily what I saw, and the observations suggested by it.

VI. For my account of the manufactories, the colleges, the schools, the harems, the history of the war in Syria, &c., I derived the materials from sources, not, perhaps, accessible to many. Chance

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threw them in my way. I was furnished by several individuals with documents and illustrations, of most of which I was permitted the free use, while at others it was necessary to glance only. Some I have been compelled, after mature consideration, wholly to suppress, lest persons to whom I consider myself deeply indebted should be compromised by their publication. But these are few; the greater number I have introduced, or employed as the ground-work of my statements, and their authors are entitled to my gratitude; though to express it in any other than a general way might be injurious to their interests or their safety.