Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1834, BY HARPER AND BROTHERS, In the Clerk's Office, of the Southern District of New-York. ΤΟ JAMES K. PAULDING, ESQ. DEAR SIR, I KNOW not to whom a work like this, consisting mainly of selections from native authors, can with more propriety be dedicated, than to one who has ever been their firmest defender and warmest advocate. These titles, I need hardly add, are peculiarly your own. Your early efforts contributed much to raise American Literature from obscurity; and, when its enemies could no longer adduce the plea of its insignificance, and, from studied contempt, had recourse to open malignity, you were found in the front rank of its defenders, hurling back, vigorously, upon the assailants, the darts of ridicule and satire. And, furthermore, that which you cherished and protected in its infancy, you have adorned and amplified in its maturer years, for you have never put off the garb of nationality, nor imbibed those foreign prejudices which would fain make us resign our truest badge of independence. Your generous support of a cause hitherto involving more honour than emolument, has given you a claim upon the regards of all who cherish national sympathies, to which I am proud to add my personal esteem, founded upon a sense of your moral worth, and an intimacy fraught with delightful recollections. These entitle me to subscribe myself Dear sir, Your grateful admirer, And obedient servant, |