AT HOME AND ABROAD. WITH TALES AND MISCELLANIES NOW FIRST COLLECTED, AND A NEW EDITION OF THE "DIARY OF AN ENNUYEE.” BY MRS. JAMESON, AUTHOR OF "THE CHARACTERISTICS OF WOMEN," &e. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. NEW-YORK: PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, 1834. THE AUTHOR TO THE READER. Ir seems a foolish thing to send into the world a book requiring a preface of apologies; and yet more absurd to presume that any deprecation on the part of the author could possibly win indulgence for what should be in itself worthless. For this reason, and with a very deep feeling of the kindness I have already experienced from the public, I should now abandon these little volumes to their destiny without one word of preface or remark, but that a certain portion of their contents seems to require a little explanation. It was the wish and request of my friends, many months ago, that I should collect various literary trifles which were scattered about in print or manuscript, and allow them to be published together. My departure for the continent set aside this intention for the time. I had other and particular objects in view, which still keep full possession of my mind, and which have been suspended not without reluctance, in order to prepare these volumes for the press:-neither had I, while travelling in Germany, the slightest idea of writing any thing of that country so far from it, that except during the last few weeks at Munich, I kept no regular notes; but finding, on my return to England, that many particulars which had strongly excited my interest with regard to the relative state of art and social existence in the two countries appeared new to those with whom I conversed,after some hesitation, I was induced to throw into form the few memoranda I had made on the spot. They are now given to the public in the first volume of this little collection with a very sincere feeling of their many im |