[figure description] Preface.[end figure description]

The atrocities constituting this “cold collation”
of diabolisms are taken mainly from various
Californian journals. They are cast in the American
language, and liberally enriched with unintelligibility.
If they shall prove incomprehensible on this
side of the Atlantic, the reader can pass to the other
side at a moderately extortionate charge. In the
pursuit of my design I think I have killed a good
many people in one way and another; but the reader
will please to observe that they were not people worth
the trouble of leaving alive. Besides, I had the interests
of my collaborator to consult. In writing,
as in compiling, I have been ably assisted by my
scholarly friend Mr. Satan; and to this worthy
gentleman must be attributed most of the views
herein set forth. While the plan of the work is
partly my own, its spirit is wholly his; and this
illustrates the ascendancy of the creative over the
merely imitative mind. Palmam qui meruit ferat—
I shall be content with the profit.