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LETTERS

FROM TEE EAST AND FROM THE WEST.

BY FREDERICK HALL, M. D.

Formerly Professor Math. and Nat. Philosophy in Middlebury College, Vt. and late
President Mount Hope College, Maryland; Member of the Conn. Acad. Sci.;
American Geol. Society; Acad. Arts and Sci. Mass., Cor. Mem. Lyceum,
N. Y., Columbian Institute, Washington, and of several Foreign Socie-
ties, Cor. Sec. American Historical Society, Washington.

PUBLISHED

BY F. TAYLOR AND WM. M. MORRRISON, WASHINGTON CITY-BELL AND ENTWISSEL,
ALEXANDRIA, D. C.-F. LUCAS, JR. AND PUBLICATION ROOMS, NO. 7, SOUTH

TO THE PUBLIC.

DEAR FRIEND:-Being about to send you a Book, it is deemed very important to say a word to you about it, in the manner of a Preface, and this may be all, which you will wish to read. The work is small, and this circumstance, being in the present age, accounted a high recommendation, may procure for it a limited persual.

The "Letters from the East, or from the valley of the Connecticut' river," were first published in the National Intelligencer of this city. These letters, it was reported, a few individuals, of your large family, would be glad to preserve, provided they were in the form of a book. For their gratification, they are now reprinted in the desired shape.

The history of the "Letters from the West" is brief. They were written more than two years ago, and transmitted, by mail, to the writer's wife, to cheer her loneliness. He cannot say, that they were composed for her amusement, only. It was his design to spend a part of the following winter in re-writing, and preparing them for the type. Sickness confined him, the whole of that dreary winter, to his couch. His health kind Heaven, in the spring, restored, and he set himself to the work of transcription. When the business was completed, the manuscript was offered, for sale, to three or four publishers, but they would not buy it. "We are willing," said they, "to print it, at our own risk. But the world is full of books; none sell, except novels; the taste of the age is so dainty, it will accept of nothing, which is not strongly peppered; times are hard; money is scarce, and we cannot run the hazard of buying a work of travels.” The author, like every tender hearted father, fancying his offspring too good to give away, concluded to lock up the scroll in his scrutoir, where it has had a long sleep.

When the other Letters come to be printed, it was found that they formed a bulk, too diminutive for a bound volume. What was to be done? After mature cogitation, it was resolved, to enlarge the volumne, by the addition of a few of the "Letters from the West." Now, as an elephant flings out his proboscis to learn, if there is any thing for him to eat or