Salmagundi; or, The whim-whams and opinions of Launcelot Langstaff, esq. [pseud.] and others. By William Irving, James Kirke Paulding and Washington Irving. Printed from the original ed., with a preface and notes by Evert A. Duyckinck.

18 SALMAGUNDI.
mined beforehand to be pleased with what we write. If, in the
course of this work, we edify, and instruct, and amuse the public, so much the better for the public; but we frankly acknowledge that so soon as we get tired of reading our own works, we
shall discontinue them without the least remorse, whatever the
public may think of it. While we continue to go on, we will go
on merrily: if we moralize, it shall be but seldom; and, onl all
occasions, we shall be more solicitous to make our readers laugh
than cry; for we are laughing philosophers, and clearly of opinion
that wisdom, true wisdom, is a plump, jolly dame, who sits in her
arm-chair, laughs right merrily at the farce of life-and takes
the world as it goes.
We intend particularly to notice the conduct of the fashionable
world; nor in this shall we be governed by that carping spirit
with which narrow-minded book-worm cynics squint at the little
extravagances of the ton; but with that liberal toleration which
actuates every man of fashion. While we keep more than a
Cerberus watch over the guardian rules of female delicacy and
decorum, we shall not discourage any little sprightliness of
demeanor, or innocent vivacity of character. Before we advance
one line further, we must let it be understood, as our firm opinion,
void of all prejudice or partiality, that the ladies of New York
are the fairest, the finest, the most accomplished, the most bewitching, the most ineffable beings that walk, creep, crawl, swim, fly,
float, or vegetate in any or all of the four elements; and that
they only want to be cured of certain whims, eccentricities, and
unseemly conceits, by our superintending cares, to render them
absolutely perfect. They will, therefore, receive a large portion
of those attentions directed to the fashionable world; nor will
the gentlemen who doze away their time in the circles of the
hauzt-ton, escape our currying. We mean those stupid fellows