Excerpt from The Bachelors, and Other Tales: Founded on American Incidents and Characters

If we look carefully into what is called a heroic age, we shall find that the deeds of the sword am'fanfiient, unless embalmed by the pen. The record that a light was kindled, lives longer than the light itself. No one man can do much for a nation's fame; that must be built up as the monument to Kosciusko's memory in Poland, where, to accomplish the great object of crea ting a pyramid, every citizen threw a stone on the pile. He who describes his own country must depend on his own countrymen for a favorable reception of his works, for foreigners in general cannot fairly judge of their merits. If we have the same language as is spoken in England, our manners and habits are essentially our own, and have grown out of the peculiarities of our situation. Englishmen have written clear histories of us, but they cannot seize the traits of individual char acter. We see imitations of Buckskin and Yankee characters, and your Nimrod Wildfires of the West but a shrewd observer will at once see that they are not true to nature, but caricatures of those they intend to represent. If these imitations were closely examined, the ignorance of the writers would be as easily detected as that of an English sailor impressed to serve in the West India squadron, who insisted that he was an Ame rican born citizen, and fixed the place of his birth at Mar ble-head - a town famed for being the cradle of ocean heroes. He was thought to be an American citizen by his examiners, until Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin called him up. Well, my lad, if you were born in Marble head, said he, you can tell me of what materials the steps of the bishop's palace are composed. Why.

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.