Fifth American from the Eighth London Edition, with Additions and BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY JAMES LORING. 1833. AUTHOR'S PREFACE. PERHAPS it will be thought that pieces written so much in the manner of set compositions as the following, should not have been denominated Letters; it may, therefore, be proper to say, that they are so called because they were actually addressed to a friend. They were written, however, with the intention to print them, if, when they were finished, the writer could persuade himself that they deserved it, and the character of authors is too well known for any one to be surprised that he could persuade himself of this. When he began these letters, his intention was to confine himself within such limits, that essays on twelve or fifteen subjects might have been comprised in a volume. But he soon found that an interesting subject could not be so fully unfolded as he wished, in such a narrow space. It appeared to him that many things which would be excluded, as much belonged to the purpose of the essay as those which would be introduced. |