THE

PROSE AND POETRY

ΟΡ

EUROPE AND AMERICA:

CONSISTING OF

LITERARY GEMS AND CURIOSITIES,

AND CONTAINING

THE CHOICE AND BEAUTIFUL PRODUCTIONS

OF MANY OF

THE MOST POPULAR WRITERS OF THE PAST AND PRESENT AGE:

BEING

A RARE AND VALUABLE WORK

FOR THE

LIBRARY OR THE BOUDOIR, AND AN ELEGANT GIFT-BOOK FOR ALL SEASONS

COMPILED

BY GeP MORRIS AND N. P. WILLIS.

COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME.

NEW-YORK:

LEAVITT & ALLEN,

(SUCCESSORS TO LEAVITT & 00.),

NO. 27 DEY-STREET.

1853.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1845,

f7 MORRIS AND WILLIS,

Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York

10-13-1430

PREFACE.

If you have ever looked with the feeling of paternity on the first green buds of a plantation of choice trees, dear reader, you can comprehend the pleasure with which we turned over the leaves of this volume-the product of much care and pains-taking. The work is now completed, and fit for a choice cabinet, or fitter still for the occupancy of a centre-table, to be taken up in any mood, and read at any length, or with any degree of abstraction. What rich variety in its contents! What more delightful than such a book, every word of which is part of a choice treasure of literature? What better idea was ever started than that of these sands of gold, sifted from the flood of English literature—a rescue of capital things, wastefully adrift, and giving a number of the most brilliant prose tales ever written? Here are gems from the master-spirits of the by-gone time-and here is sweet and earnest Barry Cornwall. What is there, in the way of lyric poetry, better worth keeping by you? And here are Pinckney's finished poems, that have been scattered over the world, untraceable to their author, till now; and the deathless efforts at invention, by the three magicians of fancy, Drake, Praed and Keats; and the poems which are the marrow of Moore's immortality; and the long lost and splendid "Angel of the World," by Croly, coupled with the enchanting narrative of "The Rimini," by Leigh Hunt. And who will not rejoice in our bringing together the inimitable songs of the bard of poor Jack, immortal and heart-stirring Dibdin? Who that has feeling or taste, piety or love of purity, will not thank us for the incomparable sacred poetry embodied in this work-for Saturday evening and Sunday reading, inestimable treasures; and also for the beautiful selections from Goldsmith, Byron, Wordsworth, Scott, Montgomery, Hood, Campbell, Breton, Mrs. Hemans, Miss Landon, and a host of others, whose productions adorn this delightful volume ? What book, published in this, or any other country, ever boasted

so rich and novel a variety? Here we have succeeded in getting into presentable shape, such choice productions as we used to lend upon bond and mortgage, so precious were our copies of them, and so fearful were we that they would never be returned. We have been years and years in making these selections, and this Library is our pride. With the assurance that the work contains nothing which is not amply worthy of preservation, it is submitted to the public as a treasure of rare story, poetry and moral, well worth every one's owning.