Forest Scenes in Norway and Sweden: Being Extracts from the Journal of a Fisherman

I have frequently heard you remark, in that quaint and pithy manner so peculiarly your own, that “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” If you should happen to find the book which I here present to your notice to be really of such a character as your friend Jack might have written under these distressing circumstances, I am afraid I cannot plead this very sensible observation of yours as my excuse; for I must confess, which I do with thankfulness, that in my time I have enjoyed quite as much play as is good for me, or for any one, in this working-day world of ours. On this point, therefore, my book must stand on its own merits.

But, as I am extremely solicitous of your good opinion, and should be very sorry to see you err on the opposite extreme, imagining, as indeed you might, that mine has been “all play and no work,” I must request you to look at the Parson at home as well as the Parson abroad,—in short, to read my “Confirmation and First Communion,” as well as my “Forest Life;” a proceeding which, if it does not benefit you, my dear Public (and I sincerely hope it may), will, at all events,—through the medium of his Publisher,—benefit, and that materially,