E-text prepared by Clare Boothby, David Garcia,
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team

THE HORSE SHOE

THE TRUE LEGEND OF
ST. DUNSTAN AND THE DEVIL;

SHOWING HOW THE HORSE-SHOE CAME TO BE A CHARM AGAINST WITCHCRAFT.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

HE success of the first edition of this little work, compels its authorto say a few words on the issue of a second. "Expressive silence" wouldnow be in him the excessive impudence of not acknowledging, as herespectfully does acknowledge, that success to be greatly ascribable tothe eminent artists who have drawn and engraved the illustrations.

"A man's worst wish for his enemy is that he might write a book," is agenerally-received notion, of whose accuracy it is hoped there is noimpertinence in suggesting a doubt. To reflect on having contributed,however slightly, to the innocent amusement of others, without givingpain to any, is alone an enjoyment well worth writing for. But when evenso unpretending a trifle as this is, can, besides, bring around itsobscure author fresh and valuable friendships, the hackneyed exclamationwould appear more intelligible if rendered thus: "Oh, that my friendwould write a book!"

In former days, possibly, things may have been very different from whatthey now are. Haply, the literary highway may, heretofore, have been notparticularly clean, choked with rubbish, badly drained, ill lighted, notalways well paved even with good intentions, and beset with dangerouscharacters, bilious-looking Thugs, prowling about, ready to pounce upon,hocus, strangle, and pillage any new arrival. But all that is nowchanged. Now, the path of literature is all velvet and roses. The raceof quacks and impostors has become as extinct, as are the saurian andthe dodo; and every honest flourisher of the pen, instead of beingtarred and feathered, is hailed as a welcome addition to "the unitedhappy family"—of letters.

Much of this agreeable change is owing to the improvement of theliterary police, which is become a respectable, sober, well-conductedbody of men, who seldom go on duty as critics, without a horse-shoe.Much is owing to the propagation of the doctrines of the Peace Society,even among that species of the genus i