INTRODUCTORY LETTER. v 



ono must work hard in collecting the materials 

 out of which intuitions are made.&quot; The 

 truth could not be hit off better. Knowl 

 edge is the soil, and intuitions are the flowers 

 which grow up out of it. The soil must be 

 well enriched and worked. 



It is very plain, or will be to those who 

 read these papers, now gathered up into this 

 book, as into a chariot for a race, that the 

 author has long employed his eyes, his ears, 

 and his understanding, in observing and con 

 sidering the facts of Nature, and in weaving 

 curious analogies. Being an editor of one 

 of the oldest daily newspapers in New 

 England, and obliged to fill its columns day 

 after day (as the village mill is obliged to 

 render every day so many sacks of flour or 

 of meal to its hungry customers), it naturally 

 occurred to him, &quot; Why not write something 

 which I myself, as well as my -readers, shall 

 enjoy ? The market gives them facts 

 enough ; politics, lies enough ; art, affecta 

 tions enough ; criminal news, horrors enough ; 



