NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBOURS; BY THE AUTHOR OF "TEMPTATION, OR A WIFE'S PERILS;" не Jasonque "Poverty, with largeness of heart, or a full purse, with a sordid spirit." SUCCESSORS TO HENRY COLBURN, 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 1855. 249. V. 448. PREFACE. 'GREAT is the dignity of authorship,' has been sung by one, who, in 'magnifying his office,' has certainly singularly adorned it. And if the dignity of authorship be indeed great, how much greater are its pleasures! Bright is the little world of fairy imagery that the poet or the novelist can conjure up for his dominion-bright, and for the time his own. There, he is indeed 'monarch of all he surveys;'-there, he can dream away the hours with the airy beings of his creation, who depend upon his sovereign will. Doth he Great is the dignity of authorship-I magnify mine office.'-PROVERBIAL PHILOSOPHY. VOL. I. α desire beauty? lo! it is before him-beauty such as his youthful spirit worshipped, or his wildest fancy pictured. Would he sun his soul in the pure light of virtue? behold! it is there-pointing ever with radiant finger upward to the skies. Doth he love justice? lo! the stern retribution is in his hands, and the sweet reward of merit awaits but his decree In his realm there is no rival-life and death are in his keeping, and his power is all creative, and all supreme. But recal him from that fairy land-the region of romance-bring him back to common life, and the illusion is dispelled. And though there may linger round him still, some light from the enchanted shore, yet is it too often quenched by the chill and misty atmosphere that hangs about our work-day world. Then begin the toil, the trouble, and the harsh realities of authorship-then the creator sinks into the copyist, and the absolute monarch becomes little better than a slave. For how can the poet-artist ever hope to convey to the ideal canvass those glowing tintsthat glorious imagery, which transported his own soul in his spiritual world? Cold eyes will gaze upon the picture now-one that is so far from satisfying even himself—dry, matter-of-fact minds will discuss its meritscritics will cavil at it, and moralists perhaps condemn ;-the ignorant will despise it-the indifferent pass it by without a word. For one it will be too tame to excite even interest --for another, too highly coloured to be natural or truthful. Malice will be there too, with her powerful magnifiers, to spy out defects, and by her side her handmaid Gossip, to select the most hideous of each group, and declare that they are portraits. 1 Great, indeed, may be the dignity of authorship, but its toils and its troubles are even greater still. Yet is it not without its rewards, even for the humblest of its votaries. An author |