Page:The last of the Mohicans (1826 Volume 1).djvu/8

cup of experience, which has often proved to him, that however ignorant the public may be of anything before it is presented to their eyes, the instant it has been subjected to that terrible ordeal, they individually and collectively, and he may add intuitively, know more of it than the agent of the discovery; and yet, that, in direct opposition to this incontrovertible fact, it is a very unsafe experiment, either for a writer or a projector to trust to the inventive powers of any one but himself. Therefore, nothing which can well be explained, should be left a mystery. Such an expedient would only impart a peculiar pleasure to readers of that description, who find a strange gratification in spending more of their time in making books, than of their money in buying them. With this preliminary explanation of his reasons for introducing so many unintelligible words, in the very threshold of his undertaking, the author will commence his task. Of course, nothing will, or need be told, with which any one, in the smallest degree ac-