The introduction to Part I. of the "Sketches of Switzerland," leaves
very little for the author to say in addition. The reader will be
prepared to meet with a long digression, that touches on the situation
and interests of another country, and it is probable he will understand
the author's motive for thus embracing matter that is not strictly
connected with the principal subject of the work.

The first visit of the writer to Switzerland was paid in 1828; that
which is related in these two volumes, in 1832. While four years had
made no changes in the sublime nature of the region, they had seriously
affected the political condition of all Europe. They had also produced a
variance of feeling and taste in the author, that is the unavoidable
consequences of time and experience. Four years in Europe are an age to
the American, as are four years in America to the European. Jefferson
has somewhere said, that no American ought to be more than five years,
at a time, out of his own country, lest he get _behind_ it. This may be
true, as to its _facts_; but the author is convinced that there is more
danger of his getting _before_ it, as to _opinion_. It is not improbable
that this book may furnish evidence of both these truths.

Some one, in criticising the First Part of Switzerland, has intimated
that the writer has a purpose to serve with the "Trades' Unions," by the
purport of some of his remarks. As this is a country in which the avowal
of a tolerably sordid and base motive seems to be indispensable, even
to safety, the writer desires to express his sense of the critic's
liberality, as it may save him from a much graver imputation.

There is really a painful humiliation in the reflection, that a citizen
of mature years, with as good natural and accidental means for
preferment as have fallen to the share of most others, may pass his life