CHOICE SPECIMENS

OF

AMERICAN LITERATURE,

AND

LITERARY READER,

BEING SELECTIONS FROM THE CHIEF AMERICAN WRITERS,

BY

PROF. BENJ. N. MARTIN, D.D., L.H.D., PROFESSOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THECITY OF NEW YORK. 1874

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

The former edition of this work was prepared simply as a supplement toShaw's "Choice Specimens of English Literature." Though it extended toa larger size than had been anticipated, and was therefore issued in aseparate volume, it still proved so straitened in point of space as tobe in some important respects defective and inadequate. The decision ofthe publishers to reprint it in an enlarged form furnishes to the editora welcome opportunity to correct its deficiencies, and to make severalimportant emendations.

When the work of collecting suitable extracts from the great body of ourliterature was fairly entered upon, it soon became apparent that littleaid could be had from the earlier manuals. Besides being in greatmeasure obsolete, they were from the beginning disproportionate, andgeographically too local in subject and spirit; both of which may bedeemed grave defects.

The last twenty years have made great changes in American authorship.Many new names must now be added to the older lists, and many formerlyfamiliar ones must be dropped from them. Hence these extracts have forthe most part been derived, with assiduous care, directly from thecollected works of our standard authors. This part of my labor has beengreatly facilitated by the courtesy of the gentlemen connected with theSociety, the Mercantile, and the Astor, Library, whose constant kindnessI gratefully acknowledge.

The principal alterations which will be found in this edition are thefollowing.

1. The extracts, formerly, of necessity, brief and fragmentary, havegiven place to more extended and coherent passages.

2. A much larger space has been allotted to the more eminent authors.
Such writers as Franklin, Jefferson, Calhoun, Webster, Wirt, Irving,
Cooper, Hawthorne, Channing, Beecher, Prescott, Motley, Shea, Bryant,
Poe, Emerson, and Lowell, have been much more adequately exhibited.

3. Many later writers have been added, so that the work more fullyrepresents the rapid development of literary effort among us.

4. A few writers, formerly included, have been dropped from the list,not always as less deserving a place, but sometimes as having lessadaptation to the purposes of the book.

Much care has been bestowed upon the dates of the several authors, andin bringing up details of information to the latest period. The samepains have been taken to furnish a just representation of the writers,too often overlooked in our manuals, of the Southern and Westernportions of our country. Though often wanting in mere grace of style,they are apt to be original and vigorous; and often possessing valuablematerial, they are well worthy of perusal. In all these respects thiscollection has been carefully elaborated; and the editor hopes that itwill be found to give a somewhat proportionate and complete view for itscompass, of our best literature.

In adapting the selections to Mr. Tuckerman's interesting "Sketch ofAmerican Literature," specimens have generally been taken from severalauthors i

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