PREFACE. 
Iv offering this book to the reading public the author of the Istzs or SUMMER 
is not unmindful of the maxim that ‘‘silence is golden.” But silence is often 
--agrave mistake, and may be acrime. The gift of speech has rendered possi- 
ble the intellectual development which distinguishes the human race. The 
different stages in the progress and perfection of language are the tide marks 
of civilization. Take from man the power tu express his thoughts, and you 
degrade him toa beast. There is a time to speak and a time to abstain from 
speaking. More than golden are those gems of thought which inspired genius 
-has in by-gone times wedded to imperishable language and given as a rich 
legacy'to the ages. But he is a wise man who knows how properly and when 
to address the great public and challenge its attention. The loud din of a 
-garrulity stale and insipid, is ever mingled with the elevated and ennobling 
notes of inspired voices. Many of the utterances that evidence man’s divine 
origin, to which the Present listens, broke the stillness of dim and distant 
ages in the morning of Civilization, while the genius of each succeeding age 
has imparted to the literary air vibrations of its own, that mingle with those 
of the past, and a great tide of melody that never ebbs, rolls grandly down 
to our own times. - 
It would seem to be sufficient for thé Present to sit at the footstool of the Past 
and listen. The public ear is not only filled but trained, educated and critical, 
so that a new voice has no more chance of being heard, than a little ripple of 
attracting attention when ocean’s great heart throbs with the quickening 
breath of a hurricane. A new book by a new author is like a new leaf amid 
the evergreen and varied foliage of a tropical forest. When one unknown to 
‘fame, takes his first born literary child in manuscript sheets to any of the 
notable publishers in either of our great cities, the cordiality with which he is 
received is like that with which a tramp is welcomed at the front door of a 
"palatial dwelling. The chance that the latter isan angel in disguise, is con- 
- sidered equal to the probability that the former is inspired. In many cases, 
