(1) This Essay was written in January 1821.
(2) Losing gamesters thus become desperate, because the continued and
violent irritation of the will against a run of ill luck drives it
to extremity, and makes it bid defiance to common sense and every
consideration of prudence or self-interest.
(3) Some of the poets in the beginning of the last century would often
set out on a simile by observing, 'So in Arabia have I seen a Phoenix!'
I confess my illustrations are of a more homely and humble nature.
(4) I beg the reader to consider this passage merely as a specimen of
the mock-heroic style, and as having nothing to do with any real facts
or feelings.
(5) Pliny's _Natural History,_ Book 36.