and interesting scene; and, while he enjoys himself there, he may forget the evils of the present moment, with the great advantage of finding himself the next day with the money in his pocket, or at least laid out in real necessaries and comforts for himself and family, and without a headache. Nay, it accompanies him to his next day's work, and, if what he had been reading be anything above the idlest and lightest, gives him something to think of, besides the mere mechanical drudgery of his every-day occupation-something he can enjoy while absent, and look forward to with pleasure. If I were to pray for a taste which should stand me instead, under every variety of circumstances, and be a source of happiness and cheerfulness to me through life, and a shield against its ills, however things might go amiss and the world frown upon me, it would be a taste for reading."

The cordial welcome with which his former Works have been received, and their widely-extended popularity, induce the editor to cherish the hope that the present volume will be favored with a reception no less flattering to his efforts. In the sincere aim to present a volume of solid, instructive, and entertaining reading, fraught with a direct moral and religious tendency, and thus adapted to improve the heart while it instructs the head—a volume especially suited to the domestic circle, he can not but feel conscious that his labors have in some sort deserved this compliment

NEW YORK, 1846.

R. S.