Initial, adj. [Initial, Fr.; initialis, from initium, Lat.]

1. Placed at the beginning.

2. Incipient; not complete.—Johnson’s Dictionary.

Initial, ale. adj. Il se dit des lettres, des syllables qui commencent un mot. En termes de calligraphie et d’imprimerie, on appelle plus particuliÈrement lettre initiale, la lettre qui commence un livre, un chapitre, etc.

Il s’emploie aussi substantivement, au feminin, pour lettre initiale. Il n’a signÉ ce billet que de l’initiale de son nom, que de son initiale. Dans ce manuscrit, les initiales sont en rouge.—Dictionnaire de l’AcadÉmie FranÇaise.

I think these quotations authorise me to call the following pages “The Initials.” According to Dr. Johnson, they would be intended to be “placed at the beginning;” would be “incipient; not complete.” It is the public who have now to decide whether what has been placed at the beginning is to have a continuation, whether what is incipient, and not complete, is to be formed and completed.

Un billet signÉ d’une initiale gave rise to all the events here related; proving the truth of the words of Bayley, in his Essays on the Formation and Publication of Opinions, that, “In everything we do we may be possibly laying a train of consequences, the operation of which may terminate only with our existence.” Had those initials not excited curiosity or interest, the so-signed billet would have been thrown aside and forgotten, or directed to the post-town from whence it came, there to seek the writer, or to be consigned to the dead-letter office. And so it will be with these “Initials,” should they awake no interest, nor excite a wish to know more; they too will be thrown aside and forgotten, or it may be that the manuscript will be redirected to the place from whence it came, thence to be consigned to merited oblivion in the dead-letter drawer of an old writing-table, among a number of truths dressed in fiction, which had been intended for publication under the names of Journals, Reminiscences, Tales, Novels, or whatever else they may have been entitled.

My greatest consolation, in case of failure, will be that I have neglected no business or duty for the purpose of scribbling; it has only been with me the means of beguiling some idle hours, with no pretension to any other object; the wish to give a slight sketch of German characters and life, such as I have myself, in the course of many years, been familiar with, or have heard them described by others, can scarcely be considered a more serious occupation.

I have, perhaps, seen and heard enough to furnish me with ample materials for something better. That I cannot use them for the benefit of either myself or others, is my misfortune, not my fault. With this excuse, (if it be one,) I commend myself to my publisher; and, supposing so adventurous a person to be found, through him to the public.