First Sentence

"Though aware that, in works not of a purely scientific nature and which will be chiefly opened with a view to amusement, a Preface receives but little attention from the majority of readers; yet I cannot refrain from availing myself of the old privilege accorded to Authors and Editors to offer a few prefatory remarks on the occasion of presenting to the public this first volume of a collection of Irish Tunes, which I have edited under the patriotic auspices of the 'Society for the Preservation and Publication of the Melodies of Ireland'."