Contains two or three Acts of a Little Comedy

All this story is told by one, who, if he was not actually present at the circumstances here narrated¹, yet had information concerning them, and could supply such a narrative² of facts and conversations as is, indeed, not less authentic³ than the details we have of other histories. How can I tell the feelings in a young lady’s mind; the thoughts in a young gentleman’s bosom⁴? — As Professor Owen or Professor Agassiz takes a fragment of a bone, and builds an enormous forgotten monster out of it, wallowing in primeval quagmires⁶, tearing down leaves and branches of plants that flourished thousands of years ago, and perhaps may be coal by this time — so the novelist puts this and that together: from the footprint finds the foot; from the foot, the brute⁷ who trod on it; from the brute, the plant he browsed⁸ on, the marsh⁹ in which he swam — and thus in his humble¹⁰ way a physiologist¹¹ too, depicts¹² the habits, size, appearance of the beings whereof he has to treat; — traces this slimy reptile¹³ through the mud, and describes his habits filthy¹⁴ and

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