March Twelfth
A HUMOROUS VIEW OF “THE HUB”
For the native Bostonian there are three paths to glory. If his name be Quincy or Adams, nothing more is expected of him. His blue blood carries him through life with glory, and straight to heaven when he dies. Failing in the happy accident of birth, the candidate for Beacon Hill honors must write a book. This is easy. The man who can breathe Boston air and not write a book is either a fool or a phenomenon. One course remains to him should he miss fame in these lines. He must be a reformer.
Sherwood Bonner
(In Letters to Dixie)
March Thirteenth
FIRST ENGLISH LITERATURE OF THE NEW WORLD
Your gracious acceptance of the first fruits of my travels ... hath actuated both Will and Power to the finishing of this Peece: ... We had hoped, ere many years had turned about, to have presented you with a rich and wel-peopled Kingdom; from whence now, with my selfe, I onely bring this Composure, ... bred in the New-World, of the rudeness whereof it cannot but participate; especially having Warres and Tumults to bring it to light in stead of the Muses....
Your Majesties most humble Servant
George Sandys
From Dedication of Ovids’s Metamorphoses, “English by George Sandys” at Henrico College, Virginia, 1621-1625. “Imprinted at London, 1626.”