Books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a progeny of life in them,

to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are: nay, they do preserve, as in a vial, the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them."

MILTON.

PREFACE.

In launching this volume upon the wave of public opinion, the publishers deem it proper to say, that although christened with a new name, and dressed in a new robe like the neophytes of a new religion, it is not altogether a new book. It is the substance of a work published during Mr. Colton's lifetime, under the title of "Visit to Constantinople and Athens." Having withstood the cross-fires of criticism in a long cruise upon the open Seas, it has come to the dry-dock for repairs; and it is now razeed into its present dimensions, in order to make one of the gallant fleet of books which sail under the flag of its author.

Another name for this work was naturally suggested to the mind of the Editor, as more truly expressing the subjectmatter of the book, and as being also more in keeping with the previous volume of "Ship and Shore." The editorial work has been that of revision and condensation. It has been cast up anew into chapters, and supplied with appropriate mottoes indicating the subject of each, and such other matter has been welded with it from manuscripts of the author, as to make it one entire and uniform piece.

The author says of the original pages, that "They were written amid the ceaseless noise and systematized confusion which prevail on board a man-of-war; the lively conversa-. tion of the ward-room officers in one ear, the prattle of the pantry boys in the other; the echoing tread of sailors overhead; on a table lashed down to prevent its being capsized, in a chair secured with laniards against the force of the ship's lurch, and with the manuscript tacked to its place to escape the fate which befell the Sibylline leaves. This is no fancy picture; any one who has been at sea, and especially they who have traversed the ocean in an armed ship, can attest the sobriety of the sketch, and also appreciate the embarrassments which such a situation imposes.

"The more serious reader, who may have taken exception to some of the harmless pleasantries of "Ship and Shore," will find, perhaps, in these pages less cause of regret. But should he meet occasionally with sentences betraying some of those lighter and less regular pulsations which will, now and then, visit the heart, he must not be offended. The only real difference between us, probably, is, that I give expression to feelings which he, more discreetly, perhaps, allows to pass off in silence.

Religion is not with me—and it ought not to be with any one-a source of gloom; it is not a great funeral pall, spread out over nature, wrapping the fragrant flowers, hushing the melodious fountains, and shutting out the bright influences of heaven; it is, itself, an exhaustless source of cheering,

all-pervading light-warming and beautifying the earthvisiting man in his most obscure abode-reaching the darkest recesses of his doubts and dismay-relieving his caressanctifying his sorrows-dispelling the despondency which the brevity of his existence here casts around him, and inspiring hopes over which death and the grave have no power."

The publishers take pleasure in now presenting this volume to the public, as being worthy of the reputation of its author, and an acceptable offering to his numerous friends. in the navy and elsewhere. They are happy to announce that another volume is in progress, to be entitled "The Sea and the Sailor, Notes on France and Italy and other Sketches of Rev. Walter Colton, together with a Memoir illustrating his Life and Character."

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H. T. C.