Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Graeme Mackreth and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net DREAM LIFE: A FABLE OF THE SEASONS BY DONALD G. MITCHELL ---- We are such stuff As dreams are made of; and our little life Is rounded with a sleep Tempest. NEW YORK SCRIBNER, ARMSTRONG, AND COMPANY 1876. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1883, by Charles Scribner & Co., In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE: STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY H.O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY _A NEW PREFACE._ Twelve years ago, this autumn, when I had finished the concluding chapters of this little book, I wrote a letter of Dedication to Washington Irving, and, forwarding it by mail to Sunnyside, begged his permission to print it. I think I shall gratify a rational curiosity of my readers (however much they may condemn my vanity) if I give his reply in full. "My dear Sir,-- "Though I have a great disinclination in general to be the object of literary oblations and compliments, yet in the present instance I have enjoyed your writings with such peculiar relish, and been so drawn toward the author by the qualities of head and heart evinced in them, that I confess I feel gratified by a dedication, over-flattering as I may deem it, which may serve as an outward sign that we are cordially linked together in sympathies and friendship. "I would only suggest that in your dedication you would omit the LL.D., a learned dignity urged upon me very much 'against the stomach of my sense,' and to which I have never laid claim. "Ever, my dear sir, "Yours, very truly, "Washington Irving "Sunnyside, Nov. 1851." I had been personally presented to Mr. Irving for the first time, only a year before, under the introduction of my good friend, Mr. Clark (the veteran Editor of the old Knickerbocker in its palmy days). Thereafter I had met him from time to time, and had paid a charming visit to his delightful home of Sunnyside. But it was after the date of the publication of this book and during the summer of 1852, that I saw Mr. Irving more familiarly, and came to appreciate more fully that charming _bonhomie_ and geniality in his character which we all recognize so constantly in his writings. And if I set down here a few recollections of that pleasant intercourse, they will, I am sure, more than make good the place of the old letter of Dedication, and will serve to keep alive the association I wish to cherish between my little book and the name of the distinguished author who so kindly showed me his favor.