Salmagundi; or, The whim-whams and opinions of Launcelot Langstaff, esq. [pseud.] and others. By William Irving, James Kirke Paulding and Washington Irving. Printed from the original ed., with a preface and notes by Evert A. Duyckinck.

;X EDITOR S PREFACE.
ian religion. His kind mistresses ministered to the wants of his
soul, as well as the infirmities of his body, and endeavored to make
him comprehend the mysteries of our faith. But they were beyond
his reach. He feared, he said,'the Lord would not know him'meaning that lowly as he was, it might escape the Divinity that
such a being had ever existed. His decay was gradual, but the
state of his mind was singularly compounded of the mistakes of
ignorance and the ramblings of light-headedness as it is called.
The day before he died I was in to see him.'Massa Launcelot,'
said he,'think old negro like me ever go to heaven?''I warrant
you, old C'esar,' replied I. He seemed comforted with the assurance, but still a doubt hung on his mind-' What will old negro like
me do there?'-Then his eye seemed glad for a moment, and his
last words were-' Never mind-I can wait upon the angels.'"
While we write, the remains of this author, at the venerable age
of eighty-two, are being borne to the tomb. It is due to his
memory, and to his generous participation in the literature of the
day, to express the opinion that when the productions of Paulding,
now for some time hidden from the world, shall be revived, the
public will again find in them a freshness and interest, a spirit and
humor, unabated since their first appearance. To the inhabitants
of New York in particular, they will present strong claims to attention, for the author, though he turned his back upon the city, was
a genuine son of Manhattan.
Of the third writer, Washington Irving, it is not necessary here
to speak, nor have we occasion, as we have said, further to point
out his share in the work. The many graces and excellences of his
style are too well known for the reader to need a guide to find them
out. He will meet everywhere in these pages the first sprightly
efforts of invention, the playful humor, the sportive fancy, the
tender sentiment which constituted in youth as in age-Washington
Irving.
A word should be said of the publisher of the work, David Longworth, a gentleman as much given to whim-whams as any of the