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THE

AMERICAN

COMMON-PLACE BOOK

OF

PROSE,

A COLLECTION OF

ELOQUENT AND INTERESTING EXTRACTS

FROM THE WRITINGS OF

AMERICAN AUTHORS.

BY G. B. CHEEVER.

BOSTON.

CARTER AND HENDEE.

1832.

81

KD3821.....

DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, TO WIT:

District Clerk's Office.

BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the fifteenth day of May, A. D. 1828, in the fifty-second year of the Independence of the United States of America, S. G. Goodrich, of the said district, has deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor, in the words following, to wit:

"The American Common-place Book of Prose, a Collection of eloquent and interesting Extracts, from the Writings of American Authors."

In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, "An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned:" and also to an act, entitled, "An Act supplementary to an act, entitled, An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving and etching historical and other prints."

JNO. W. DAVIS,

Clerk of the District of Massachusetts.

HARVARD
LUNIVERSITY

LIBRARY

PREFACE.

Books of common-place are the amusements of literature. It is pleasant to have at one's side a wellselected volume, to which he may turn for mental recreation, when the fatigue of preceding exertion has rendered him unequal to intellectual effort. It is pleasant, also, to have before us the eloquent passages of our favourite authors, so that we may occasionally awaken and prolong the delightful sensations with which we at first perused them. But the mere power of conferring amusement is not that, which gives to publications of this sort their highest value. To all those, whose constant occupation precludes the possibility of spending many leisure hours in the acquisition of literary taste and knowledge, they may be rendered eminently useful.

The present volume is selected entirely from American authors, and contains specimens of American literature from its earliest period to the present day. It is hoped that it may not be found inferior in excellence or interest to any of those compilations which have hitherto embraced only the morceaux delicieuse of English genius.

When we say this, it is without any feeling of national vanity or rivalry. Our wish is merely to furnish a volume which shall correspond in design and execution to those which are now so popular abroad, and

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