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As it is possible that with this first part the fiction of “Asmodeus at Large“may terminate and as it is highly probable, at least, that it will not for some time be continued, we may as well say a few words on the design and object of the work. Although a part of a series, this first. Book is a whole in itself;—its moral is complete. The more ingenious reader may, perhaps, already have perceived, that, while adapted to this miscellany1 by constant allusions to real and temporary events, a metaphysical meaning runs throughout the characters and the story. In the narrator is imbodied the Satiety which is of the world; in Asmodeus is the principle of vague Excitement in which Satiety always seeks for relief. The extravagant adventures,—the rambling from the ideal to the common-place, from the flights of the imagination to the trite affairs and petty pleasures of the day—are the natural results of Excitement without an object. A fervid, though hasty, Passion succeeds at last; and Asmodeus appears na more, because, in Love, all vague excitement is merged in absorbing and earnest emotion. The passion is ill-fated; but in its progress it is attempted to be shown, that, however it might have terminated, it could not have been productive of happiness. It was begun without prudence, and continued without foresight. The heart, once jaded, rushes even into love, from a principle of despair; and exacting too much from novelty, relapses into its former weariness, when the novelty is no more. No flowers can live long on a soil thoroughly exhausted. The doom of Satiety is to hate self, yet ever to. be alone.

1. New Monthly Magazine.