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Entroductory Remarks,

ADDRESSED CHIEFLY

TO THE YOUNG.

THOUGH this Manual is already dedicated to persons of all ages, yet I cannot forbear offering a few words more to you, The Young, who form so numerous a class in society. You will, perhaps, allow me to call myself your friend; feeling, as I sincerely do, a deep concern, that your early and all your future years may be used to the best account possible.

The book, here presented to you, treats on two of the most interesting subjects conceivable; illustrated in a great variety of ways, by arguments, precepts, and models. If it should assist you in ordering your Time, and governing your Tempers aright, who can estimate the benefits which you may derive from the early and continual use of it?

When I say “continual use,” you will perceive I am venturesome enough to suppose that this Book, which is chiefly a compilation from standard authors, will not altogether share the fate of very many publications of the day;-be just glanced at, and then thrown aside. Judging from the importance of the two-fold subject here treated of, and from the value of the principal part of my materials, I can almost hope that it will out-live some of its fugitive contemporaries; that you will give it an abiding residence upon the table, or shelf, nearest you; that you will often ponder, with care, a few of its most favourite pages; in short, that it will be to you, what it calls itself, a Manual.

Upon two such subjects, the importance of which is coeval with the existence of mankind, it seemed next to impossible for me to say any thing original. My desire, therefore, in making this little compilation, has been, that you should learn, as I have myself delighted to learn, from some of the wisest among the sons of men;-and their lessons, I feel, could not be better expressed than in their own language.

Yet neither do I wish, by thus offering Extracts and Abbreviations, to entice you away from consulting their original and entire works. You have here,

indeed, some of the sentiments and models best calculated to impress upon the heart the value of Time, and the blessing of a well-ordered Temper. But, fully to appreciate the characters and the excellent reflections of the different authors cited, it would be advisable for you to read their lives throughout, together with some of their writings. Perhaps these brief specimens may stimulate your inclination to do so: but when you shall have fully satiated your minds with these longer works, and when growing occupations shall begin to engross your time, you may still, afterwards, return with an increased relish to these selected portions; the value of which you will the better understand, from having surveyed their Lives and Writings on a larger scale. They will thus serve you to begin with in early youth, and to recur to in later life.

That you will thus return, I venture to predict for you; because my own experience has so led me, during a period of more than twenty years. After reading several of the writings alluded to, my mind now often reposes on these brief Extracts; feeling more than ever their practical use, as calculated to leave a permanently healthful and pleasing influence upon the heart.

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