[figure description] Preface iii.[end figure description]

It was the hope of the author when he began the
following work, that he might be able to produce a book,
in some slight degree, characteristic and national in its
features. Now, that it is completed, he fears it may be
found far short of that hope, and unequal even to his
own feeble purposes. He had a design which seemed, in
some of its circumstances, to partake a little of utility and
truth; but which, he is afraid, is not made quite so clear
to the reader.

Where he has attempted to shade and soften, he may
have blurred; and where he would have cut sharp lines
and effected contrasts, it may prove that he has merely
mangled character and story. Imperfect as is his own
judgment in such a case, he thinks he can discover one or
two places at least, where more should have been said and
less done; or more done and less said. He wishes only that
he had sufficient influence with the reader to persuade him
to guard against a single false alarm frequently raised
against works of this class. The constancy, with which
the charge of caricaturing Nature is brought against

[figure description] Preface iv.[end figure description]

writers who attempt the humorous, should lead us to suspect—
particularly as Cervantes, Smollett, Fielding and
Scott, to say nothing of more recent eminent examples,
have all, at one time or another, been included in the
accusation—that there is less justice and more assumption
in the charge, than seems at first possible.

These authors all wrote from a sure instinct, a profound
knowledge of their art. They knew very well, or must
have early learned, that the spirit of the accusation would
drive all literature upon a servile transcript of every-day
objects, and most effectually stifle every work claiming
to be a work of art. It was their province, they knew, to
discover in nature the germ of character, and to expand it
by processes of which genius is master, into a livelier, truer
development than nature, in her ordinary moods, presents.
To group, to separate, to soften and elevate nature, is
allowed to the author as well as the painter; and the
charge of caricaturing should be brought only where
Nature is lost sight of and fails to furnish the original
staple, out of which the product is wrought.

It happened to the author, during the progress of the
early parts of this Tale through the pages of a Magazine
(Arcturus,) to be engaged in the advocacy of a Law
of International Copy-right: a cause which he will not
fail to urge at all proper opportunities. As it was not
found altogether convenient to answer what he advanced,
an attack was made, by a new sort of evasive logic, upon
the present work. What kind of generalship it would be
to set out with the valiant purpose of the conquest of
Mexico and proceed to its execution by marching a couple of

[figure description] Preface v.[end figure description]

thousand miles in directly the opposite course, and opening
a brisk cannonade upon the Heights of Abraham, for example,—
the reader may determine. The author only expresses
a wish that the following work may be judged by
itself, apart from collateral issues and distracting personalities.
In that spirit he believes it will be judged by all
fair-minded and capable critics. Whatever the issue may
be, he cannot altogether regret that he has written it
since it has afforded him an opportunity to serve, in a
very humble way, objects, of which he ought not to be
ashamed.

It will be perceived that a portion of the text is illustrated
by H. K. Browne, Esq., (Phiz,) of London. In
justice to the artist, it should be added, that the great
distance, at which he labored, from the author, has caused
him to depart, in some particulars, from the conception
it was the author's purpose to embody. As they are
the first and only designs procured from that gentleman
for America, the author ventures to add, that he regards
them, with this reservation, as eminently ingenious and
spirited.