PREFACE. "All the world honors the historian who takes great countries in hand, and tells the story of their growth, truly and philosophically. But we bespeak honor for historians of a humbler sort-for the compilers of facts worth preserving out of moth-eaten manuscripts, charred relics of town-house fires, old church session records, parish registries, and family Bibles-for those who rescue from wreck and ruin the elements of history. Many such are laboring with excellent devotion where there is no hope of remuneration for their services, and unsupported by the encouragement of others engaged in like pursuits. They give the best of their days and infinite eyesight to rescue from oblivion and perishable archives their notes of local history, and, by the agency of the press, treasure them in fire-proof libraries for future use. Out of these various collections a master hand commands the appearance of philosophy that teaches by example, as out of the compacted rills the river runs. We hail every new local history with pleasure, and when the work is well done, are disposed to rate the author as of more service to the world than many a successful cultivator of other departments of literature. We trust the |