ance from his own perceptions." On the general theory, therefore, which I hold of this department of the historical art, I should certainly have introduced into my history specimens of the literature concerning which I write; but there is an additional reason why I ought to do so in the present case. The literature of which I have here given an account, is a neglected literature, and probably must always remain neglected: the most of the books of which it is composed have not been read and cannot be read by many people now living; since those books exist in but few copies, and lurk as rare and costly literary treasures in a small number of libraries. To give only abstract descriptions of such a literature, and to assume that my readers can verify my statements, by their own recollections of it, or by immediate and easy references to it, would be mere trifling. The only course left to me, if I would render my labors of any real benefit to those for whom I write, is to give freely, and with as much discrimination as I possess, such portions of our early literature as may form a sort of terse anthology of it, and as may enable my own readers to feel for themselves something of what I have felt in my direct and prolonged researches in it.

It is my duty, likewise, to state here just what method I have adopted in the reproduction of the literary specimens that are given in this book. Obviously, their value for the purpose now in view would be destroyed, if they should be tampered with; if the historian of this body of literature should undertake to improve it by his own emendations of it,-correcting its syntax, chastising its

1 "Life, Letters, and Journals of George Ticknor," II. 257.

vocabulary, or recomposing the structure of its sentences. This I have never knowingly done. I have tried to reproduce my illustrative passages precisely as they stand in the original texts, excepting in three particulars relating to mere mechanical form. The seventeenth century and the first half of the eighteenth, were times of extreme inaccuracy in proof-reading, and of extreme confusion in punctuation and spelling; and I have thought it no violation of the integrity of quotation for me to spell and punctuate any sentence of those times according to present usage, and occasionally to correct a palpable error of the press. It will be understood, also, that whenever, in citing a passage, long or short, the purpose of my citation would be satisfied by giving only a fragment of it, I have given only the fragment; and that in such cases I have indicated, in the usual manner, the presence of an ellipsis.

The studies upon which this book is founded have been for several years my principal occupation; and it is my purpose to continue those studies, till I shall have gone over the remainder of the field. The result will be given to the public as soon as practicable; and I shall think it a good fortune if, by the publication of the present work, I may be brought into communication with the possessors of rare materials relating to the periods that I have yet to survey, and may thus be enabled to prosecute my further labors with some generous assistance which otherwise I might not have.

The years which I have given to the preparation of this book would not be regretted by me, were it for no other reason than that the prosecution of my researches has made me acquainted with the noble spirit of mutual help

fulness prevailing among men of letters. I have not found them the irritable race that they have been named, but rather brethren, and friends, and benefactors. In all my explorations of public and private libraries, in all the conversation and correspondence that I have had to seek in my hunt after the sources of our literature, I have not one instance of unkindness to remember, or even of aid doled out reluctantly; but, on the contrary, more instances than I am able to remember of considerate and most bountiful help even from strangers, who, recognizing me as a working- brother in the guild of letters, have freely bestowed their kindness upon me. First of all, I must thank my Alma Mater, Yale College, and her accomplished librarian, Mr. Addison Van Name, for the loan of needed books sent to me in my distant home. For several months together, I was at work in the Astor Library, and had there every courtesy from the late Dr. Edward R. Straznicky, from Mr. Frederick Saunders, and from my kinsman, Mr. Arthur W. Tyler, now the librarian of the Johns Hopkins University. For a still longer time, have I pursued my studies at the library of the New York Historical Society, where Dr. George H. Moore, now of the Lenox Library, Mr. John Austin Stevens, and especially Mr. William Kelby, have given me every facility. I must add that my indebtedness to the first of the three gentlemen just named, is much greater than is implied in official assistance, however generous; since, for a number of years, I have had the privilege of consulting him personally upon any difficult problem that I encountered in my studies, and of receiving the benefit that could come only from such prolonged, minute, and accurate acquaintance as he possesses with American history and bibliography. While

upon my researches in the Prince Library, which is in the good keeping of the Public Library of Boston, I was constantly aided by Mr. Arthur Mason Knapp, by my college-mate, Mr. James L. Whitney, and by Mr. Justin Winsor; from the latter of whom I have also had kind assistance since his appointment to the superintendence of the library of Harvard College. I hardly know in what terms to thank the officers of the Massachusetts Historical Society, particularly Mr. Charles Deane and Dr. Samuel Abbott Green, for the cordiality and fulness of my welcome to the privileges of their library, and for innumerable acts of courtesy and of real help on their part. Mr. Charles Ward Dean, the librarian of the New England Historic-Genealogical Society, has been most friendly in his efforts to serve me. I also had willing help from the officers of the Boston Athenæum, upon my visit to that institution. In Providence, through the polite intervention of Mr. John Russell Bartlett, I experienced that generosity which may now be called hereditary, and which throws open to students the treasures of the superb library founded by the late John Carter Brown; while Mr. C. Fiske Harris, of the same city, gave me not only cordial hospitality but his personal assistance, when he permitted me to explore his unique collection of American poetry,-the most extensive, I suppose, in the world. My studies in Philadelphia were promoted to the utmost by the kind offices of Mr. William F. Ford, one of the editors of "The Times" newspaper in that city; of Mr. Lloyd P. Smith, the librarian of the Library Company; of Mr. John William Wallace, the president of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and of Mr. Frederick D. Stone, its librarian. In pursuing my re

searches in the Library of Congress, I had the most efficient and affable help from Mr. Ainsworth R. Spofford, under whose enlightened and energetic direction the national library is becoming not only an honor to the country, but a blessing to every citizen.

In conclusion, I take pleasure in offering here my hearty thanks, for help of various kinds, to the Reverend Henry Martyn Dexter, of Boston; to Mr. John Langdon Sibley, of Cambridge; to Mr. John Bigelow, of New York; to Mr. Henry A. Homes, of the State Library at Albany; to the Reverend O. S. St. John, of Brooklyn, N. Y.; to the Reverend Edward D. Neill, of Macalister College, Minnesota; to Mr. Samuel F. Haven, of Worcester, Mass.; to Mr. Henry A. Chaney and Mr. C. Endicott, of Detroit; and to my friends and associates in the University of Michigan,-Professors Thomas M. Cooley, Henry S. Frieze, Elisha Jones, Edward L. Walter, and Isaac N. Demmon. The critical help that Professor Demmon has given in the revision of the proof-sheets, has been to me invaluable, as on his part it has been without stint of courtesy or toil.

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, ANN ARBOR,

October 5, 1878.