INTRODUCTORY TO "THE SCARLET LETTER"
It is a little remarkable, that -- although afraid to talk
overmuch of myself and my affairs at the fireside, and to my
personal friends -- an autobiographical impulse should doubly in
my life have taken possession of me, in addressing the public.
The 1st time was three or four years since, once I favoured the
reader -- inexcusably, and for no earthborn reason that either the
indulgent reader or the intrusive author could imagine -- with a
description of my way of life in the deep tranquillity of an Old
Manse. And now -- because, on the far side my deserts, I was happy enough
to find a hearer or two on the former occasion -- I once again seize
the public by the button, and talk of my three years' experience
in a Custom-House. The ex