PREFATORY NOTE.
In the preface to the first volume the Editor intimated that the following pages contained the pieces selected by Dr. Yates himself. This statement is correct, excepting so far as the Appendix is concerned, which has been substituted for a contemplated chapter of Proverbial and Moral Sayings, translated partly from the English and partly from the Persian. The reasons which induced the Editor to make this change are the following. On the one hand, among the papers referring to this work, none furnished any satisfactory indications as to what proverbial and moral sayings the lamented Author intended to introduce. On the other hand, the preceding pieces contain not a small number of such sayings, more original, and therefore better adapted to the object of the work, than a collection derived from the English and the Persian could have been. It was therefore thought preferable to subjoin an Appendix, containing some specimens of poetry, and of the periodical literature of the day. In his selection of the latter the Editor was guided by accidental circumstances: he gave extracts from those papers which happened to be at hand; but he believes them to be pretty fair specimens of the average staple of native periodicals.
In preparing this volume, it was the Author's intention to give specimens of Native composition only, to the exclusion of all pieces translated from the English, or composed under the influence either of Christianity or of an English education. The Editor felt strongly tempted to deviate from this rule at least so far as to give, in the Appendix, a few extracts from the Rev. K. M. Banerjea's Eucyclopedia Bengalensis: but on second thoughts he abstained from overstepping the limits traced by his late revered friend.
