L THE AMERICAN LIBRARY OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE. PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY OF The Boston Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. VOL. I. CONTAINING Judge STORY'S, Mr. WEBSTER's, and Mr. EVERETT's Lectures Boston: PUBLISHED BY STIMPSON AND CLAPP. N. Hale's Steam Press 1831. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1831, by STIMPSON AND CLAPP, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 3-8-32 v. 1-2,4i 3 PREFACE. THE design of this publication is to furnish a collection of such works, on the most important branches of knowledge, as ought to be in the possession of every intelligent family. It is intended to embrace in it only works of permanent utility, and such as will present the subjects of which they treat in the most authentic form, with the advantage of all the lights which shall have been shed upon them, by the labors of the learned and scientific, up to the time of publication. It will consist, in part, of approved works of foreign origin, which shall be considered particularly adapted to the object in view, and, in part, of works written for the purpose, by distinguished native authors, under the direction of the editor, and the sanction of the Society which has interested itself in the promotion of the publication. The series will consist of independent works, some of them extending to the compass of three or four volumes, but such as, when taken together, will form a well assorted library. It is intended that each work shall be written in a style which shall be intelligible to the careful reader, although he may have little other previous acquaintance with the particular subject treated of, than may have been acquired from the preceding volumes of the series; yet it is hoped that they will be regarded as far from superficial, and that they will not be thought unworthy of the attention of the accomplished scholar and man of science. Controverted doctrines will be, as much as possible, avoided, and the great aim of the work will be to aid in the general dissemination of facts and principles, which most enlightened men unite in regarding as true, and worthy of being generally known. Boston, June 10, 1831. |