The atrocities constituting this “cold collation” of diabolisms are
taken mainly from various Californian journals. They are cast in the
American language, and liberally enriched with unintelligibility. If
they shall prove incomprehensible on this side of the Atlantic, the
reader can pass to the other side at a moderately extortionate charge.
In the pursuit of my design I think I have killed a good many people in
one way and another; but the reader will please to observe that they
were not people worth the trouble of leaving alive. Besides, I had the
interests of my collaborator to consult. In writing, as in compiling, I
have been ably assisted by my scholarly friend Mr. Satan; and to this
worthy gentleman must be attributed most of the views herein set forth.
While the plan of the work is partly my own, its spirit is wholly his;
and this illustrates the ascendancy of the creative over the merely
imitative mind. _Palmam qui meruit ferat_—I shall be content with the
profit.