THE SHIP OF GLASS; OR, THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND. A ROMANCE, IN THREE VOLUMES. BY HARGRAVE JENNINGS. AUTHOR OF MY MARINE MEMORANDUM BOOK," &c. "There was a SHIP,' quoth he." Coleridge's Ancient Mariner. VOL. I. LONDON: THOMAS CAUTLEY NEWBY, PUBLISHE 72, MORTIMER ST, CAVENDISH Sq. 1846 1056. PREFACE. Ir a bulky book be an evil, a long preface may be regarded as a still greater nuisance. It is like a long tiresome bow from a master of the ceremonies when he is keeping you from a view of the "divine partner" he is assiduously busied in introducing. Still the Author could not divest himself of the idea that a pretending work in Three Volumes requires a word or two, lest it should be abruptly thrust into the reader's hands. These volumes contain Two Tales of very opposite characteristics :-the one being a direct Romance ; the other a sort of Novel, where the writer speaks more "Like a man of this world." But of the two tales, the leading one, though by no means the longest, the writer considers may be safely depended on as the principal. |