Imagination and Heart, Tales for Fifteen | Page 4

written on rainy day, half asleep and half awake, but I
retain rather a favorable impression of it."}
{"Imagination", remains an amusing and cleverly- plotted story of a
young girl whose imagination gets the better of her, presumably
because of reading romantic novels. This, of course, was a
commonplace notion in the 1820s, except that Cooper's heroine, misled
by circumstances, comes to believe that her romantic fantasies are
happening. This Don Quixote-like twist is less common, though Jane
Austen's famous "Northanger Abbey" and Eaton Stannard Barrett's
little-known but very funny "The Heroine; or, Adventures of
Cherubina" (1813) fall within the genre. "Heart", a slim (indeed,
truncated) account of faithful love, sinks into bathos; it is, perhaps,
most interesting for its opening scene of a blase New York City crowd
gathering around a fallen man -- and doing nothing to help him.}
{Spelling and punctuation are as in the 1823 original, including
inconsistent spellings (e.g., gaiety and gayety, Henly and Henley)
except that, because of the typographical limitations of the Gutenberg
system, the few words italicized in the original are represented by ALL
CAPITALS. Annotations by the transcriber are enclosed in {curly
brackets}. A very few obvious typographical errors have been marked
by {sic}.}

TALES FOR FIFTEEN: OR IMAGINATION AND HEART.
BY JANE MORGAN. ================
NEW-YORK C. WILEY, 3 WALL STREET J. Seymour, printer 1823

Southern District of New-York ss. BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the
thirteenth day of June, in the forty-seventh year of the Independence of
the United States of America, Charles Wiley, of the said District, hath
deposited in this office the title of a Book, the right whereof he claims
as proprietor, in the words and figures following, to wit:
"Tales for Fifteen; or Imagination and Heart. By Jane Morgan."
In conformity with the Act of Congress of the United States entitled,
"An Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of
Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies,
during the times herein mentioned." And also to an Act, entitled, "an
Act, supplementary to an Act, for the encouragement of Learning, by
securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and
proprietors of such copies, during the times herein mentioned, and
extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and
etching historical and other prints." JAMES DILL, Clerk of the
Southern District of New-York

PREFACE
WHEN the author of these little tales commenced them, it was her
intention to form a short series of such stories as, it was hoped, might
not be entirely without moral advantage; but unforeseen circumstances
have prevented their completion, and, unwilling to delay the
publication any longer, she commits them to the world in their present
unfinished state, without any flattering anticipations of their reception.
They are intended for the perusal of young women, at that tender age
when the feelings of their nature begin to act on them most insidiously,
and when their minds are least prepared by reason and experience to
contend with their passions.
"Heart" was intended for a much longer tale, and is unavoidably
incomplete; but it is unnecessary to point out defects that even the
juvenile reader will soon detect. The author only hopes that if they do
no good, her tales will, at least, do no harm.

IMAGINATION. ---oOo---
I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again: Mine ear is much enamoured of

thy note, So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape; And thy fair virtue's
force perforce doth move me, On the first view, to say, to swear, I love
thee. MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
{Shakespeare, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" Act III, Scene 1, lines
137-141}
"DO--write to me often, my dear Anna!" said the weeping Julia Warren,
on parting, for the first time since their acquaintance, with the young
lady whom she had honoured with the highest place in her affections.
"Think how dreadfully solitary and miserable I shall be here, without a
single companion, or a soul to converse with, now you are to be
removed two hundred miles into the wilderness."
"Oh! trust me, my love, I shall not forget you now or ever," replied her
friend, embracing the other slightly, and, perhaps, rather hastily for so
tender an adieu; at the same time glancing her eye on the figure of a
youth, who stood in silent contemplation of the scene. "And doubt not
but I shall soon tire you with my correspondence, especially as I more
than suspect it will be subjected to the criticisms of Mr. Charles
Weston." As she concluded, the young lady curtisied to the youth in a
manner that contradicted, by its flattery, the forced irony of her remark.
"Never, my dear girl!" exclaimed Miss Warren with extreme fervour.
"The confidence of our friendship is