A Fable for Critics

One word to such readers (judicious and wise) as read books with something behind the mere eyes, of whom in the country, perhaps, there are two, including myself, gentle reader, and you. All the characters sketched in this slight jeu d’esprit, though it may be they seem, here and there, rather free and drawn from a somewhat too cynical standpoint, are meant to be faithful, for that is the{xi} grand point, and none but an owl would feel sore at a rub from a jester who tells you, without any subterfuge, that he sits in Diogenes’ tub.