Transcriber's Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
THE
HOPE
OF THE
KATZEKOPFS;
OR, THE
SORROWS
OF
SELFISHNESS.
A Fairy Tale.
PREFACE.
The former edition of this little tale was putforth with an Introduction (which was intendedto be in keeping with it) from thepen of an imaginary author,—that WilliamChurne, of whom Bishop Corbet writes, andwho, two centuries since, seems to have beenthe great authority on all matters connectedwith Fairy-land.
In this introduction, the object with whichthe “Hope of the Katzekopfs” was writtenviwas stated. It was an attempt, under theguise of a Fairy-tale, to lead young minds toa more wholesome train of thought than iscommonly found at the present day in popularjuvenile literature. The Author’s aim was toexcite the sympathies of the young in behalfof others, and to set before them in its truecolours the hideous sin of selfishness. Andthe book was put forth as an experiment, toascertain whether the youth of the presentgeneration had patience to glean the lessonswhich lurk beneath the surface of legendarytales, and the chronicles of the wild andsupernatural; whether their hearts could bemoved to noble and chivalrous feelings, andto shake off the hard, cold, calculating,worldly, selfish temper of the times, by beingbrought into more immediate contact with theideal, the imaginary, and the romantic, thanviihas been the fashion of late years,—whether,in short, a race that has been glutted withPeter Parley, and Penny Magazines, and suchlike stories