Abashed by the equitable precept let those teach others, who themselves excel, I have scarcely dared to present the following pages to your attention, aware, how fairly I am putting it in the power of my readers to ask, in the searching words of an eminent prelate, 'you who write thus and advise thus, do you do thus Alas, no! And yet although it be but little good that I may be allowed to do, the very aim is right and may be blessed. First, then, I would have you never forget the beautiful teachings of Sir Matthew Hale, that the fear of God begins with the heart and purifies and rectifies it; and that from the heart, thus rectified, grows a conformity in the life, the words and the actions. Well convinced am I, that there are many of you who require not so much to be informed as reminded, a remembrancer is often more useful than an instructor the office, although more humble, is scarcely less necessary, and I am persuaded that if ever my plain admonitions are allowed to make their due impression, they cannot fail to produce a salutary effect upon some of you, my youthful readers keeping you safe, even in the midst of an ensnaring world, active and zealous in the discharge of duties, with minds ever dis posed to dwell on subjects of solemn interest.
