BE

Southern District of New-York, ss.

E IT REMEMBERED, That on the twenty-seventh day of April, in the forty-sixth year of the Independence of the United States of America, JONATHAN SEYMOUR, of the said District, hath deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor, in the words following, to wit:

"A New-England Tale; or, Sketches of New-England Character and Manners.

But how the subject theme may gang,
Let time and chance determine;
Perhaps it may turn out a sang,
Perhaps turn out a sermon.

BURNS."

In conformity to the Act of Congress of the United States, entitled "An Act for the encouragement of Learning. by securing the copies of Maps. Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the time therein mentioned" And also to an Act, entitled "an Act, supplementary to an Act, entitled an Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprie tors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historica! and other prints."

JAMES DILL,

Clerk of the Southern District of New-York.

w

ΤΟ

MARIA EDGEWORTH.

AS A

SLIGHT EXPRESSION

OF THE

WRITER'S SENSE OF HER EMINENT SERVICE

IN THE

Great Cause

OF

HUMAN VIRTUE AND IMPROVEMENT,

THIS HUMBLE TALE

IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED.

PREFACE.

THE writer of this tale has made an humble effort to add something to the scanty stock of native American literature. Any attempt to conciliate favour by apologies would be unavailing and absurd. In this free country, no person is under any obligation to write; and the public (unfortunately) is under no obligation to read. It is certainly desirable to possess some sketches of the character and manners of our own country, and if this has been done with any degree of success, it would be wrong to doubt that it will find a reception sufficiently favourable.

The original design of the author was, if possible, even more limited and less ambitious than what has been accomplished. It was simply to produce a very short and simple moral tale of the most humble de

scription; and if in the course of its production it has acquired any thing of a peculiar or local cast, this should be chiefly attributed to the habits of the writer's education, and that kind of accident which seems to control the efforts of those who have not been the subjects of strict intellectual discipline, and have not sufficiently premeditated their own designs.

It can scarcely be necessary to assure the reader, that no personal allusions, however remote, were intended to be made to any individual, unless it be an exception to this remark, that the writer has attempted a sketch of a real character under the fictitious appellation of Crazy Bet."

66

March 30, 1822.