BOHN'S STANDARD LIBRARY. * * * RICHTER'S FLOWER, FRUIT, AND THORN PIECES. GEORGE BELL & SONS LONDON: YORK ST., COVENT GARDEN NEW YORK 66 FIFTH AVENUE, AND BOMBAY: 53 ESPLANADE ROAD CAMBRIDGE: DEIGHTON BELL & CO. FLOWER, FRUIT AND THORN PIECES; OR, THE WEDDED LIFE, DEATH, AND MARRIAGE OF FIRMIAN STANISLAUS SIEBENKÆS, PARISH ADVOCATE IN THE BURGH OF KUHSCHNAPPEL. (_A GENUINE THORN PIECE_.) BY JEAN PAUL FRIEDRICH RICHTER. Translated from the German BY ALEXANDER EWING. LONDON GEORGE BELL AND SONS 1897 [_Reprinted from Stereotype plates_.] PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. What advantage shall I reap in giving to the world this, my new edition of 'Siebenkæs,' embellished and perfected as it is with all the additions, corrections, and improvements which it has been in my power to make? Can I expect to be any the better for it? People will, I daresay, buy it and read it; but not give much of their time to the study of it, nor be sufficiently detailed and thorough in their criticism of it. The Pythia of Criticism has hitherto been chary of her oracles to me, as the Greek Pythia was to other inquirers; she has chewed up my laurels, instead of crowning me with them, and prophesied little or nothing. The author very distinctly remembers setting to work, for instance, at the second edition of his 'Hesperus,'[1] with his pruning-saw in his left hand and his oculist's knife in his right, and applying both instruments to the work to an extraordinary extent; it was in vain, however, that he looked for anything like an appreciative notice of it, either in literary or non-literary publications. Similarly, in all his new editions (those of 'Fixlein,' the 'Preparatory School,' and 'Levana,' are proofs and witnesses[2]), however he may set to work, hanging up new pictures, turning some of the old ones' faces to the wall--marching off some ideas, relieving them by others--making characters conduct themselves better, or worse, or hit upon better, or upon worse, ideas, as the case may be,--the deuce a reviewer takes the least notice of it, or says a word to the world on the subject.