Excerpt from American Colonial History: An Address Made by Thomas Donaldson, Esq., Before the Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, March 29, 1849, Being the Fourth Annual Address to That Association Most favor, and are read with the greatest and most enduring in terest, are not those whose characters are chosen from the most exalted positions, and whose incidents affect the largest number of persons; but such as deal with the every-day occurrences of domestic life, depicting scenes which come within the sphere of our personal experience, and exhibiting the Operation of those very qualities of heart and mind, which we see most constantly called into exercise around us. It is unnecessary to allude to such works particularly, because they will suggest themselves to the recollection of all. There is one, however, which from the nature of its details, seems more than ordinarily applicable to the subject in hand - I refer to the great work of Defoe. For what reason is it the delight of young and old? Its hero was endowed with no more than ordinary capacity of mind, and possessed no higher moral qualities than are found in the average of men. The incidents of his story for the long term, during which he lived upon his island, are in general, of the most common-place char acter, such as must have occurred to any one in the same situa tion. To devise shifts for supplying himself with food, lodging, and some of the commoner comforts of civilized life, to plan and execute a system of defences for his protection against the incur sions of savages, and to provide the means of escape from his solitude - such is a summary of the hero's action; while his reflections, and the hopes and fears which agitate him, are such as would arise in the mind of the commonest man placed in the same desolate seclusion. Even afterwards, when the accession of numbers placed a little colony under his charge, no narrower scale could well be devised, on which to show the trials and progress of an infant community in the wilds of a new country. Yet why is every part of this narrative of such absorbing interest? The answer of every one would be, because it is so true to nature - so real - so exactly what we suppose would have taken place under the circumstances. Does it not follow, that an exact relation of what actually did take place in similar circumstances must also be interesting? And would not a true account of the. 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.