B H/ UNIVERSITY Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1849, by in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED BY EDWARD O. JENKINS, 114 NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK. PREFACE. THE first of these volumes includes all that was in the former edition of Poems and Prose Writings, with the addition to the Poems of a few short pieces. That edition contained all that was in the small volume of Poems published in 1827. For particulars respecting this last-mentioned volume, the reader is referred to its Preface, here republished. To the prose of this first volume I have restored its old title, The Idle Man. Of the work under that title, published in New York in 1821-22, The Writer of the Idle Man to his Old Friends will tell my readers as much as they will care to know. The Contents to the second volume show when and in what works the Essays first appeared. Of the remaining articles, this information is given at the beginning of each. I have republished most of my Reviews, mainly because I thought there was a probability that, if I did not, some one would when I was gone. In anticipating this, and revising these articles for the press, I believe I have done no more than my duty to myself. In the revision I have made slight changes, but have not felt at liberty to do any thing that would affect the general character of the Reviews: had I so felt, I might, perhaps, have freed them from many faults. The only changes. which, it seems to me, are of importance enough to be partic ularly mentioned, and these take the character of extension, or growth, rather than of superaddition, are those in the review of Hazlitt, which are spoken of at the head of that article. And this reminds me, that what is there said respecting Hazlitt's productions and literary rank after that review was written, is equally applicable to Mr. Irving and the review of The Sketch Book. For although Mr. Irving was better known when the review of him appeared, and more highly estimated both at home and abroad than was Mr. Hazlitt in our country when the article on his Lectures was published, Mr. Irving has also gone on rising in reputation, and giving proofs of the variety, strength, and beauty of his mind. Besides this, he has revised his works, bringing to the revision the helps of long-matured thought and taste. The review of The Sketch Book, therefore, is preserved more for the sake of conformity with my general purpose, and for the historical interest it may possess, than for any applicability to the works of Mr. Irving at this time. In the Reviews much is said upon the state of American literature, and the notions then more or less prevalent about literature and literary men, which must have a strange aspect to those who have grown up since they were written. Yet it is as true as things of so general a character usually can be. With this in mind, they should be read as a part of our literary history. If looked at in this light, I may be allowed to say, they will be deserving of some attention, and in it will probably be found to lie their chief interest to people of this day. For in the changes which the literary world has undergone within the last thirty years, much that was once held to be presumptu ous novelty (though in fact only restoration) must now be looked upon as little better than commonplace. BOSTON, November 1, 1849. |