Author: Samuel W. Eager

Publisher:

Published: 2015-07-06

Total Pages: 664

ISBN-13: 9781330822760

Excerpt from An Outline History of Orange County Every work, from Sinbad the Sailor to a British Classic, has, or ought to have, an Introduction - establishing its propriety and necessity, and explaining in some good degree its nature and design, particular and general. It is a point about which there is a kind of joyous public expectation, necessary to gratify and indulge, dangerous to disappoint, lest the omission materially injure the work itself. Generally speaking, the world is not over friendly to any one in particular, and we may safely mark it down, in deep black lines, as hostile to and careless of our acquaintance. When we address it, therefore, for our own or the benefit of others, common courtesy would seem to demand that we speak to it in the kindest terms, pat it on the head as we would a vicious and untamed animal, tell who we are, what we want and are in quest of, and what favors we expect of it. The public, like a private gentleman, expects a letter of introduction, before it will make our acquaintance and regard us kindly. Indeed, you might as soon expect to see a man during a clear day without his shadow, or Don Quixotte appear publicly in the streets without being preceded by his Esquire Sancho, as to see a grave and learned work on Etymology, and the historical reasons for names, thrown carelessly upon the public notice without a well digested and befitting Introduction. - The omission would prove a careless disregard of popular favor, sentiment, and expectation. To this all important department, as it concerns the future welfare of our Paper, we now proceed; and when manipulated to our satisfaction, will adventure upon the more laborious and difficult task of executing the work itself. It is said that ivestigation begets a thirst for investigation, and that we are happily so constituted that labor makes labor more pleasant and agreeable. The truth of this principle we will endeavor to establish, or prove its antiquated fallacy, by a reasonable devotion of our time and labor. We have heard the sentiment advanced and advocated, that it requires more tact and mental effort to write an Introduction, than the work. Not knowing its truth by actual experience, we neither affirm nor deny it. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.