Excerpt from Scenes and Sketches in Continental Europe: Embracing Descriptions of France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Sicily, Switzerland, Belgium, and Holland, Together With Interesting Notices of Their Principal Cities and Towns So great has been the influence of cheap novels upon the morals and welfare of our community, and so extensively have they been circulated, that within the last year, men of sense, and men of family, those who have wives, and those whose children are just coming forward on the stage of action, have risen up in their might, and boldly presented themselves against the further wholesale diffusion of books, which having no useful end or aim, and conveying no teachings of wisdom, or lessons of practical utility, serve but to pass away an idle hour; and, in many cases, to destroy a disposition for works of a more valuable character. We have attempted, in an humble and unobtrusive way to assist in this noble work. We have endeavored to call the attention of the American people to the diffusion of truly valuable knowledge - knowledge which can be made available in every rank and station of life. To this end have our efforts been directed. Nor is this all; still further to assist in this glorious undertaking, our books have been made attractive by pictorial embellishments, designed by the first artists, and from authentic pictures. These embellishments also serve another purpose, to humanize the mind, to render it alive to the charms of nature, and to inspire among the people a taste for the fine arts. In this enterprise our efforts have been nobly sustained by the people, and all interested in diffusing principles of sound education. Our Pictorial Works have found their way into every village. They have been offered as premiums for excellence in mental attainments; and have been introduced into the libraries of sabbath and district schools. Men of genius and talent, those holding the highest official stations in the country - men who direct the masses - who have placed their mark on the present age, and who will be ever remembered as among the gifted of the nineteenth century - have cheered us onward with their approbation. Sustained by the influence and patronage of those whose good opinion is ever to be appreciated, we shall go on laboring earnestly and zealously in the great cause, uninfluenced by those whose envy may detract from the merits of our books. Only a few months since we issued the "Pictorial Description of Great Britain and Ireland." The present, although a separate and distinct book, may be regarded as another of the same series. It treats of a part of the European continent, which is deeply interesting, and over which the classics of Tacitus, Horace, Cicero, and Virgil, have thrown a charm, which does not exist in the more northerly parts of Europe. We commend our new work to those who have smiled so kindly on our previous enterprises, assuring them that the present work is equal in value to its predecessors. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.