SYDENHAM, NEAR PHILADELPHIA, February 28, 1857.


To MESSRS.

J.B. LIPPINCOTT AND CO.,

PUBLISHERS,

PHILADELPHIA.




TO

CHARLES J. INGERSOLL.

* * * * *

This literary trifle is hardly worth a dedication; yet it has dared to
touch, though with incompetent hands, a high subject, and, trifle as it
is, I dedicate it to you. At an agreeable little dinner at your table
lately, where we had the new Vice-President, Mr. Breckenridge, whose
maternal stock, the Stanhope Smiths and Witherspoons, so rich in
intellect, we knew at Princeton, you said we had been friends for
upwards of sixty years. You were right, for we were merry boys together
in Philadelphia before our college days at Princeton; and I may here