Sir John Constantine

The title page announces memoirs of the adventures of Sir John Constantine at home and abroad and particularly in the island of Corsica, beginning with the year 1756, written by his son Prosper Paleologus otherwise Constantine. A note to the reader says that a hundred and fifty episodes, two sermons, and a number of moral digressions have been omitted from this story.

A memory of the Hog's Back and the breeze blowing there includes coming on a gibbet on the highest rise and riding around it to windward on the broad turfy margin of the road. A father in the story says that man would tire too soon of his natural vices, so we invent new ones for him by making laws and boundaries. One exchange has an uncle asking, "You will not deny that patriotism is a virtue?" and a father replying, "Not I; nor that it is the finest invention of all." A girl addressed as Princess speaks in slow, quiet contempt, telling Johann Constantine that she has heard that all Englishmen tell the truth, and expect it, and are otherwise mad.