[18] It behoves me now to say a few words respecting this book as a
mere literary production.
Alexander Pope, who, next to Shakespeare and perhaps Butler, was the
most copious contributor to the current stock of English maxims,
says:
"True ease in writing comes from Art, not Chance,
As those move easiest who have learnt to dance."
A whole dozen years of bodily sickness and mental tribulation have
not been conducive to that regularity of practice in composition
which alone can ensure the "true ease" spoken of by the poet; and
therefore is it that my style leaves so much to be desired, and
exhibits, perhaps, still, more to be pardoned. Happily, a quarrel
such as ours with the author of "The English in the West Indies"
cannot be finally or even approximately settled on the score of
superior literary competency, whether of aggressor or defender. I
feel free to ignore whatever verdict might be grounded on a
consideration so purely artificial. There ought to be enough, if not
in these pages, at any rate in whatever else I have heretofore
published, that should prove me not so hopelessly stupid and wanting
in [19] self-respect, as would be implied by my undertaking a contest
in artistic phrase-weaving with one who, even among the foremost of
his literary countrymen, is confessedly a master in that craft.
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