PREFACE.

have some

THE following Essays, with a single exception, have been selected from contributions originally made to the North American Review. They are purely of a literary character; and as they have little reference to local or temporary topics, and as the Journal in which they appeared, though the most considerable in the United States, is not widely circulated in Great Britain, it has been thought that a republication of the Articles might novelty and interest for the English reader. Several of the papers were written many years since; and the Author is aware that they betray those crudities in the execution which belong to an unpractised writer, -while others of more recent date may be charged with the inaccuracies incident to rapid and, sometimes, careless composition. The more obvious blemishes he has endeavoured to correct, without attempting to reform the critical judgments, which, in some cases, he could wish had been expressed in a more qualified and temperate and he dismisses the volume with the hope that, in submitting it to the British public, he may not be thought to have relied too far on that indulgence which has been so freely extended to his more elaborate efforts.

manner;

BOSTON, March 30, 1845.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL

MISCELLANIES.

MEMOIR OF

CHARLES BROCKDEN BROWN,

THE AMERICAN NOVELIST.*

THE class of professed men of letters, if we exclude from the account the conductors of periodical journals, is certainly not very large even at the present day in our country. But before the close of the last century, it was nearly impossible to meet with an individual who looked to authorship as his only, or indeed his principal means of subsistence. This was somewhat the more remarkable, considering the extraordinary developement of intellectual power exhibited in every quarter of the country, and applied to every variety of moral and social culture; and formed a singular contrast with more than one nation in Europe, where literature still continued to be followed as a distinct profession, amidst all the difficulties resulting from an arbitrary government, and popular imbecility and ignorance.

* From Sparks's American Biography, 1834

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