Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors][merged small]

ESQUIRE.-Our Own Dedication to an

As genuine worth ought always to be recognized and published to the world, not for the sake of ostentation, but to provoke to imitation, the opportunity is seized of dedicating this volume-the fruit of several years' mental labour-to H. G. G. LUDLOW, ESQ., J.P., D.L., of Heywood House, not merely as an expression of deep thankfulness for many personal kindnesses received from him, but as a token of admiration for his unwearied benevolence to the poor, his profound interest in the young, and his decided sympathy with acknowledged evangelical truth and personal religion. To him, and to his truly devoted wife, the parishioners of Heywood are unspeakably indebted both for the beautiful Church in which they worship God, and the numerous Christian advantages they now happily possess.-DR. Davies.

FATHER.-A Dedication to a

To my father, whose life, like a perfume from beyond the Gates, penetrates every life which approaches it, the readers of this little book will owe whatever pleasant thing they may find within its pages.-PHELPS.

[merged small][ocr errors]

This volume is inscribed with deep reverence and affection to my mother.―LORaine.

NOBLEMAN.-A Dedication to a

Your honourable name hath stood long, like a happy star, in the orb of divine volumes, -a sanctuary of protection to the labours and persons of students; and if I have presumed to flee thither also for refuge, I am taught the way by more worthy precedents. It cannot be but for your honour that your patronage is so generally sought for, not only by private ministers, but even by whole universities; in the vouchsafing whereof you have daily as many prayers as the earth hath saints. I am bold also to present my poor offering, as one loath to be hindmost in that acknowledgment which is so nobly deserved, and so joyfully rendered, of all tongues. Divers of these sermons did presume on the help of your noble wing when they first adventured to fly abroad; in their retrief, or second flight, being now sprung up in greater number, they humbly beg the same favour.-T. Adams.

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

DEDICATION.

Or how should England dreaming of his sons
Hope more from these than some inheritance
Of such a life, a heart, a mind as thine,
Thou noble Father of her Kings to be,
Laborious for her people and her poor-
Voice in the rich dawn of an ampler day-
Far-sighted summoner of War and Waste
To fruitful strifes and rivalries of peace.-
Sweet Nature gilded by the gracious gleam
Of letters, dear to Science, dear to Art,

Dear to thy land and ours, a Prince indeed,

Beyond all titles, and a household name,

Hereafter, thro' all times-Albert the Good.-TENNYSON.

SISTER.-A Dedication to a

vii

Dost thou recall, from the bosom of God where thou reposest, those long days at Ghazir, in which, alone with thee, I wrote these pages, inspired by the places we had visited together? Silent at my side, thou didst read and copy each sheet as soon as I had written it, whilst the sea, the villages, the ravines, and the mountains were spread at our feet. When the overwhelming light had given place to the innumerable army of stars, thy shrewd and subtle questions,-thy discreet doubts, led me back to the sublime Object of our common thoughts. * * * In the midst of these sweet meditations, the Angel of Death struck us both with his wing: the sleep of fever seized us at the same time: I awoke alone! * Thou sleepest now in the land of Adonis, near the holy Byblus and the sacred stream where the women of the ancient mysteries came to mingle their tears. Reveal to me, O good genius! to me whom thou lovedst, those truths which conquer death, deprive it of terror, and make it almost beloved!-RÉNAN.

WIFE.-A Dedication to a

* *

These ears of corn, gathered and rubbed in my hands upon broken Sabbaths, I offer first to my wife.-DR. MACDONALD.

PREFACE.

Your opening promises some great design.—HORace.

PREFACE.-The Beauty of a

A Preface, being the entrance of a book, should invite by its beauty. An elegant porch announces the splendour of the interior.-I. DISRAELI.

PREFACE.-Carelessness respecting a

Few read a preface, and few care about it, that I shall make the present one as brief as possible.-MOODY.

PREFACE.-The Composition of a

So difficult is the composition of a preface, that some authors can write a miniature library more readily and satisfactorily than a single preface. Hence originated the custom, in times remote, for the makers of books to secure for this special department "the ornamental contribution of a man of genius;" and hence, too, even at the present, this brief, yet elaborate page, though it appears at the opening of a volume, is the last effort of mental skill.-E. DAVIES.

PREFACE.-The Definition of a

It is the otto of the author's roses; every drop distilled at an immense cost. It is the reason of the reasoning, and the folly of the foolish.— I. DISRAELI.

PREFACE.-A Devout

Long ago it used to be said that there was a nobleman in France, in whose domains all the wood and stone, when split or hewn, bore the owner's coat of arms depicted upon them by Nature. I shall not inquire into the truth of the story; but at least it is certain—that the man of piety and observation finds in all the creatures the mark, name, and arms of his benign and merciful God. The Book of Nature-to say the same thing in other words—has many thousand leaves, upon all of which the finger of God has inscribed His goodness; and He scatters

PREFACE.

them in every place, that we may never want the opportunity of contemplating the height and depth of His love. Happy the man who reads and devoutly meditates upon them!—SCRIVER.

PREFACE.-Dread of Criticism Shown in a

For the doctrine the author offers no apology,-it is his joy in life, and his hope in death: the style will be, as usual, severely attacked. If it shall be proved that his reasonings are vitiated, and his statements are incorrect, he shall bow to that judgment. Still will he stoop, if the censor be of a sufficient order of intellect to warrant a jest and sneer; only let him not be reproved in a vein of language, and with a course of illustration, which inspired no stimulating zest by containing any superior model.-DR. R. W. HAMILTON.

PREFACE-Egotism Displayed in a

I have such a facility in writing verses, and also in my invention, that a poem of double its length would have cost me little trouble. Although it contains only eleven thousand lines, I believe that longer epics do not exhibit more embellishments than mine.-SCUDERY.

PREFACE.-An Elegant

On a very elegant preface prefixed to an ill-written book, it was observed— that they ought never to have come together; but a sarcastic wit remarked -that he considered such marriages were allowable, for they were not of kin.-I. Disraeli.

PREFACE.-An Eloquent

These voices are only echoes, often diverted and broken, yet never entirely spent in their transit from the future into the present. They are but snatches of the heavenly jubilee-fragments of glorious harmonies transmitted now and then from the white-robed choirs and adoring group of the age to come. They are intimations of the glory to be revealed— preludes to the eternal hallelujah !—CUMMING.

PREFACE.-An Entertaining

It is not my intention to make an apology for my poem; some will think it needs no excuse, and others will receive none. The design I am sure is honest; but he who draws his pen for one party, must expect to make enemies of the other. There is a treasury of merits in the fanatic Church, as well as in the popish; and a pennyworth to be had of saintship, honesty, and poetry. My comfort is their manifest prejudice to my cause will render their judgment of less authority against Yet if a poem have a genius, it will force its own reception in

me.

« ZurückWeiter »