The title is to be received in a larger sense than the obsolete
signification: the old table books were for private use--mine is for
the public; and the more the public desire it, the more I shall be
gratified. I have not the folly to suppose it will pass from _my_ table
to _every_ table, but I think that not a single sheet can appear on the
table of any family without communicating some information, or affording
some diversion.
On the title-page there are a few lines which briefly, yet adequately,
describe the collections in my _Table Book_: and, as regards my own
“sayings and doings,” the prevailing disposition of my mind is perhaps
sufficiently made known through the _Every-Day Book_. In the latter
publication, I was inconveniently limited as to room; and the labour I
had there prescribed to myself, of commemorating _every_ day, frequently
prevented me from topics that would have been more agreeable to my
readers than the “two grains of wheat in a bushel of chaff,” which I
often consumed my time and spirits in endeavouring to discover--and did
not always find.
In my _Table Book_, which I hope will never be out of “season,” I take
the liberty to “annihilate both time and space,” to the extent of a few
lines or days, and lease, and talk, when and where I can, according to
my humour. Sometimes I present an offering of “all sorts,” simpled from
out-of-the-way and in-the-way books; and, at other times, gossip to the
public, as to an old friend, diffusely or briefly, as I chance to be
more or less in the giving “vein,” about a passing event, a work just
read, a print in my hand, the thing I last thought of, or saw, or heard,
or, to be plain, about “whatever comes uppermost.” In short, my
collections and recollections come forth just as I happen to suppose
they may be most agreeable or serviceable to those whom I esteem, or
care for, and by whom I desire to be respected.
MY TABLE BOOK is enriched and diversified by the contributions of my
friends; the teemings of time, and the press, give it novelty; and what
I know of works of art, with something of imagination, and the
assistance of artists, enable me to add pictorial embellishment. My
object is to blend information with amusement, and utility with
diversion.
MY TABLE BOOK, therefore, is a series of continually shifting scenes--a
kind of literary kaleidoscope, combining popular forms with singular
appearances--by which youth and age of all ranks may be amused; and to
which, I respectfully trust, many will gladly add something, to improve
its views.
[1] Johnson.
[2] Fosbroke’s Encyclopædia of Antiquities.
[3] Gesner De rerum fossilium figuris, &c. Tigur. 1565. 12mo.
[4] Glossary by Mr. Archd. Nares.
~Ode to the New Year~
From the _Every Day Book_: set to Music for the _Table Book_,