Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1838, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. WILLIAM S. DAMRELL, PRINTER, THE account of the Life and Character of Mr. STEARNS has been extended beyond what was at first anticipated. Many of his letters, written in Europe, and copious extracts from his Note-Book for Italy, will be found incorporated with the memoir. It may not be necessary to apologize for the subject-matter or for the literary execution of them. But it should be remembered, that they were written with confidential and unstudied freedom, sketched, often in weariness and in haste, for the entertainment of friends, or to aid the author's own recollections of interesting scenes. From the very nature of the case, they could not be advantageously revised, even if any one had been disposed to attempt a revision. They are, therefore, given to the press, without correction, just as they were written;-as a record of first impressions, fresh and warm from the heart. In the choice of extracts from the Note-Book, the editor selected those passages which appear to have been written with the greatest fulness, and at the same time best illustrate the taste and peculiarities of their author. Even in these, some of the obscurer names of persons and places were so nearly illegible, from the haste and confusion with which i |