ut first being at the
trouble of becoming acquainted with its design
and purpose.

"It is not statistical. Figures of arithmetic
have already been heaped upon America's devoted
head, almost as lavishly as figures of speech
have been piled above Shakespeare's grave.

"It comprehends no small talk concerning
individuals, and no violation of the social
confidences of private life. The very prevalent
practice of kidnapping live ladies and
gentlemen, forcing them into cabinets, and
labelling and ticketing them whether they will
or no, for the gratification of the idle and
the curious, is not to my taste. Therefore I
have avoided it.

"It has not a grain of any political ingredient
in its whole composition.

"Neither does it contain, nor have I intended
that it should contain, any lengthened and
minute account of my personal reception in the
United States: not because I am, or ever was,
insensible to that spontaneous effusion of
affection and generosity of heart, in a most
affectionate and generous-hearted people; but
because I conceive that it would ill become me
to flourish matter necessarily involving so
much of my own praises, in the eyes of my
unhappy readers.

"This book is simply what it claims to be--a
record of the impressions I received from day
to day, during my hasty travels in America, and
sometimes (but not always) of the conclusions
to which they, and after-reflection on them,
have led me; a description of the country I
passed through; of the institutions I visited;
of the kind of people among whom I journeyed;
and of the manners and customs that came within
my observation. Very many works having just the
same scope and range, have been already
published, but I think that these two volumes
stand in need of no apology on that account.
The interest of such productions, if they have
any, lies in the varying impressions made by
the same novel things on different minds; and
not in new discoveries or extraordinary
adventures.

"I can scarcely be supposed to be ignorant of
the hazard I run in writing of America at all.