Transcriber's Note:
In "Descriptions of the Divine Being," P. 96, the block quote inside ~(tilde) marks is a transliteration of the Hebrew. The transliterationwas not present in the original and has been added by the transcriber;[h.] is used for Het, to distinguish it from h for Hey. The UTF8 andHTML versions also have the Hebrew script shown in the original.
Remaining transcriber's notes are at the end of the text.
THE
PORTLAND SKETCH BOOK.
EDITED BY
MRS. ANN S. STEPHENS.
PORTLAND:
COLMAN & CHISHOLM.
Arthur Shirley, Printer.
1836.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1836, byEdward Stephens, in the Clerk's Office of the DistrictCourt of Maine.
PREFACE.
The object of the Portland Sketch-Book, is to collectin a small compass, literary specimens from such authorsas have a just claim to be styled Portland writers.The list might have been extended to a muchgreater length, had all been included who have madeour city a place of transient residence; but no writerhas a place in this volume who is not, or has not been,a citizen of Portland, either by birth or a long residence.Therefore, all the names contained in thesepages are emphatically those of Portland authors.Among those who were actually born here and eitherwholly, or in part educated here, will be found the followingnames, most of which are already known to theworld of literature.
S. B. Beckett—James Brooks—William Cutter—CharlesS. Daveis—Nathaniel Deering—P. H. Greenleaf—CharlesP. Ilsley—Joseph Ingraham—Geo. W.Light—Henry W. Longfellow—Grenville Mellen—FrederickMellen—Isaac McLellan, Jr.—John Neal—Elizabeth[iv]Smith—William Willis—N. P. Willis.
Considering the population of our city—hardly fifteenthousand at this time—the list itself we apprehend willbe considered as not the least remarkable part of thebook.
It was the design of the Publishers to furnish a bookcomposed of original articles from all our living authors,and to select only from those who have been lostto us; but though great exertions were made, the editorfound much difficulty in collecting original materials,even after they had been promised by almost everyindividual to whom she applied. According to theoriginal design, each living author was to have contributeda limited number of pages; but after frequent disappointments,all restrictions were taken off; eachwriter furnished as many original pages as suited hispleasure, and the deficiency was supplied by selectedarticles. In her selections, the editor has endeavoredto do impartial justice to our authors, and, in almostevery instance, she has been guided by them in herchoice. If in any case she has been obliged to exerciseher own judgment, in contradiction to theirs, itwas because the publishers had restricted her to a certainnumber of pages, and the articles proposed wouldhave swelled the volume beyond the prescribed limits.Original papers are inserted exactly as they weresupplied by their separate authors. A general invitationwas extended; therefore it should give no offence,...