University of Virginia Library

PREFACE.

My friend, Robert Carlton, has been several times
solicited to fulfill a promise given in his other work,
viz., to write the Old Purchase. In reply, however, he
has always said in substance, that, “not having got
such a bargain as he had expected, he is resolved on
making no more Purchases: that, beside, the Old
World is all written up, since in there every person did
his own writing, and manufactured his own poetry,
authors being as plenty as readers; hence, that all sorts
of folks were seeking to sell literary wares; ready, indeed,
to exchange commodities, giving usually boot,
and not rarely bestowing their surplus of wit, science,
and incidents, gratuitously. Like the opposition barber
that shaved for three pence and gave a drink of
beer for nothing, many often lecture at an expense (!)

to themselves, provided you will merely buy their books
and charts!”

“Nay, every elevation, hill or mountain,” he contends
further, “has been ascended, and from the summit
every scene of lake or land described, poetized,
painted! Every meadow has been measured, every
water befished; every woman, in or out of pantalettes
and tournures, besonneted; every thing galvanized,
phrenologized, mesmerized: in short, that every body
has seen all places, is acquainted with every body else,
and knows, in all matters, more than ever was known
before, or ever can be known again!”

The reader will readily perceive a good deal of
common-place in such a reply; and, perhaps, a little
peevishness; still my friend insists that he will not do
the Old Purchase, and so the world must be, this time,
the losers.

I am happy, however, in having gained his consent
to the publication of certain letters written, for some
time past, in answer to letters of my own, designed,
on my part, to elicit his sentiments and opinions
on certain points, which may be learned from a perusal
of the present volume. A few of my own epistles are
inserted where it seemed important; if I have misjudged,

it is hoped the presumption is not unpardonable.

The reader may rest assured that the incidents,
narratives, and illustrative anecdotes in the letters are
strictly, nay, some of them almost verbally, true; such
alteration in names and places merely, being adopted,
as might best screen the true individuals and scenes of
their action. My friend's earnest desire is to instruct,
far more than to amuse. Hence, before the reader
forms a decisive and final judgment about the present
work, it is expected he will attentively read the
whole.

Mr. Carlton had wished to revise and give a more
essaical form, with a slight elevation of the style, to
these letters: but it was at last concluded, that the
more familiar style would be generally more acceptable,
and therefore more generally useful. Letters designed
to be published to the world are in great danger,
through fear of the public ever before the mind of the
writer, of becoming starched and formal; and, it must
be confessed that some of the theological and philosophic
letters in this collection seem, from that fault, to
have from the first been designed for more readers than
one.

My friend, who has abundant materials on hand,
and who speaks rather threateningly about writing

more, when next he appears before the public, will,
possibly, present himself without the intervention of
the subscriber.