Adventurous READER,—Never poor Wright of a Dedicator had less hopes from their Dedication, than we have from this of ours; for it is written in a bye corner of the city, and in a retir’d brick’d apartment, where we live in a constant endeavour to fence against the infirmities of ill health, and other evils of life, by mirth; being firmly persuaded that every time a human smiles,——but much more so, when they laugh, it adds something to this Fragment of Life.
We humbly beg, ADVENTUROUS READER, that you will honour this gamebook, by taking it——(not under your Protection,——it must protect itself, but)——upstate into the country with you; where, if we are ever told, it has made you smile; or can conceive it has beguiled you of one moment’s pain——we shall think ourselves as happy as a minister of state;———perhaps much happier than any one (one only excepted) that we have read or heard of.
Our Adventurous Reader
“We solemnly declare this to be a dedication, notwithstanding its singularity in the three great essentials of matter, form, and place: We beg, therefore, you will accept it as such, and that you will permit us to lay it, with the most respectful humility, at your Adventurous Readership’s feet,—when you are upon them,—which you can be when you please;—and that is, my Adventurous Reader, whenever there is occasion for it, and we will add, to the best purposes too. We have the honour to be,