MAPLETON; ов, More Work for the Maine Law. "The law which restrains a man from doing mischief to his fellow-citizens, though it SECOND EDITION. BOSTON: JENKS, HICKLING AND SWAN. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by JENKS, HICKLING & SWAN, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts. STEREOTYPED BY NEW ENGLAND TYPE AND STEREOTYPE FOUNDERY BOSTON. PREFACE. THE parabolic and dramatic style is as old as literature. It was adopted by Him who had lessons of highest import to impart; because truth in action is far more effective than truth in abstraction. Humanity in the story of the good Samaritan, and penitence in that of the Prodigal Son, touch the heart as they could not in the most finished disquisition. Those who brand every book of the kind as a novel, in an offensive sense, are at war with the constitution of our nature. This form of literature meets an instinctive want, which must be met in some way, — if not with sentiments to enlighten, enlarge and ennoble, then with those to weaken, wither and debase. Instead of carping against light literature, it were better to charge it with truths and influences purifying, profound and enduring, and send it abroad on a mission of love to mankind. The evil is not in the use, but in the abuse. Not the rocks, mountains, and valleys of Greece, nor the physical scenery of England, has made it what it is in the world of mind; but the creations of genius by which it is adorned. So, till a national literature of our own has cast its diviner hues upon our scenery, not even Niagara can rise to its proper position in the regards of mankind. This work is a draught upon materials which have been some years accumulating, in the author's endeavor to form a style coincident with the habits and sympathies of the living age. The didactic and abstract, much as he might prefer them, are not the weapons for a steam and lightning movement. If the mountain will not come to Mahomet, why, then, Mahomet must go to the mountain. If witches can only be shot with silver, what is the use of firing lead? Are any grieved that the age will not bear elaborate writing, "I more;" but who is able to fight against destiny? This story is not so extraordinary as the facts which it adumbrates. The caricature is not here, but in real life. Had the author's sketches reached the extreme limit of history, they would have lacked the essential requisite of an air of credibility. "A love-story on so grave a theme !—is this admissible?" This objection the author can better meet than vouch for his tact in managing so |