BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. NO. CCCCXXI. NOVEMBER, 1850. VOL. LXVIII. CONTENTS. MY NOVEL; OR, VARIETIES IN ENGLISH LIFE. PART III. 499 THE RISE, POWER, AND POLITICS OF PRUSSIA, 516 HOURS IN SPAIN, 534 MODERN STATE TRIALS. PART II. 545 ANNA HAMMER, 573 ALTON LOCKE, TAILOR AND POET: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY, 592 THE RENEWAL OF THE INCOME-TAX, 611 EDINBURGH: WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS, 45 GEORGE STREET; AND 37 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. _To whom all communications (post-paid) must be addressed._ SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH. BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. NO. CCCCXXI. NOVEMBER, 1850. VOL. LXVIII. MY NOVEL; OR, VARIETIES IN ENGLISH LIFE. BY PISISTRATUS CAXTON. BOOK II--INITIAL CHAPTER:--INFORMING THE READER HOW THIS WORK CAME TO HAVE INITIAL CHAPTERS. "There can't be a doubt," said my father, "that to each of the main divisions of your work--whether you call them Books or Parts--you should prefix an Initial or Introductory Chapter." PISISTRATUS.--"Can't be a doubt, sir! Why so?" MR CAXTON.--"Fielding lays it down as an indispensable rule, which he supports by his example; and Fielding was an artistical writer, and knew what he was about." PISISTRATUS.--"Do you remember any of his reasons, sir?" MR CAXTON.--"Why, indeed, Fielding says very justly that he is not bound to assign any reason; but he does assign a good many, here and there--to find which, I refer you to _Tom Jones_. I will only observe, that one of his reasons, which is unanswerable, runs to the effect that thus, in every Part or Book, the reader has the advantage of beginning at the fourth or fifth page instead of the first--'a matter by no means of trivial consequence,' saith Fielding, 'to persons who read books with no other view than to say they have read them--a more general motive to reading than is commonly imagined; and from which not only law books and good books, but the pages of Homer and Virgil, of Swift and Cervantes have been often turned over.' There," cried my father triumphantly, "I will lay a shilling to twopence that I have quoted the very words." MRS CAXTON.--"Dear me, that only means skipping: I don't see any great advantage in writing a chapter, merely for people to skip it." PISISTRATUS.--"Neither do I!"