Excerpt from A Library of American Literature, Vol. 1 of 10: From the Earliest Settlement to the Present Time If our task shall be rightly executed, an important addition will be provided for the library of an American household. The work, as its name implies, Will be a library in itself, whose contents are most attractive, offering precisely that of which the home-reader wishes to be informed. After all, as with the study of Nature, the best way to gain a knowledge of literature is to survey it with our own eyes. Nothing can enable one sooner to test the quality of our native product, - to comprehend its origin and development, and its re ection of the different stages of American history and aspiration, than such an exhibition as we propose. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."