The prefaces to the former editions of the New-England
Tale are retained in this, as there may yet be
those to whom their explanations will be satisfactory.
The reason alleged in the first for the publication of
the book is now rendered void by the immense and
rapidly increasing mass of “native American literature.”
This Tale might be left to its natural death, or obscurity,
overshadowed by fresher and superior productions
of the same species, but that it derives some
claim to sufferance from its priority in time.
Our social has kept pace with our physical development
in the last few years. Society has been moulded
and remoulded, cast and recast, so that the portraiture
of thirty years since, though bearing no veri-similitude
to the present times, has a certain value, like that of a
picture, however unskilfully wrought, that preserves
with truth the features and costume of a past period.
New sects have sprung up, old ones are abated or
softened, and a pharisaical, canting bigot, of the old
orthodoxy of New-England, like the Dame Wilson of
our story, would talk an unknown tongue to a sister in
the communion of the new school, albeit evangelical.
The progress of civilization, and the facilities of
communication, have levelled all distinctions. There
is no village so secluded now as to be surprised by the
fashions of the town, and scarcely a country-bred lady
to be detected by her rusticity. The progress in the
luxury of dress makes the invective of our Mrs. Convers
against the extravagance of the `now-a-days girl'
simply ludicrous. The country `store,' which perhaps
received its designation from the variety of its commodities,
ranging from brooms to ribbons, has become
the `
shop,' filled, in some cases, by direct importations
from England and France. No crusade could now be
successfully pursued against dancing. Even the rustic
phrases that characterized the position of our dramatis
personæ have passed away and are forgotten. — Thus
if the coin we offer be neither gold nor silver, if it
have no intrinsic value, we hope its impress will be
an apology for its new issue, with those who have a
fond or foolish love for the past.
The additional tales in the volume will at least have
the attraction of novelty to most of our readers, as they
are now, for the first time, resuscitated, after a decent
interment in the magazines.
