OF THE LATE

MRS. SUSAN HUNTINGTON,

OF BOSTON, MASS.

BY

BENJAMIN B. WISNER,

PASTOR OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH IN BOSTON.

WITH

AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY,

AND

AN ORIGINAL POEM,

BY

JAMES MONTGOMERY,

AUTHOR OF "THE WORLD BEFORE THE FLOOD," "SONGS OF ZION,"

66

66
THE CHRISTIAN PSALMIST," THE CHRISTIAN POET," &c.

FIFTH EDITION.

GLASGOW:

PRINTED FOR WILLIAM COLLINS;

WILLIAM WHYTE & CO. AND WILLIAM CLIPHANT, EDIN UPGH ;
W. F. WAKEMAN; AND WM. CURRY, JUN. & CO. DUBLIN,
WHITTAKER, TREACHER, & ARNOT; HAMILTON, ADAMS, & co.
SIMPKIN AND MARSHALL; BALDWIN & CRADOCK";
AND HURST, CHANCE, & CO.:LONDON,“.

MDCCCXXIX.

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

THERE is a world of invisible beings among us, whose influences are perpetually acting upon our minds, directing our pursuits, and shaping our characters. Who are these?—They are not celestial intelligences, employed for the glory of God in the service of man. They are not fallen angels, in this revolted province of the Almighty's empire, permitted to tempt and harass its inhabitants during their period of trial and probation. Nor are they the spirits of just men made perfect, who, as many amiable and excellent persons (without any authority from revelation) suppose, may be commissioned to watch over surviving relatives, comfort them in trouble, and help them on their way to join themselves in paradise.-No; they are none of these yet are they of the number of those, who, in every age and country, have lived and died, not for themselves alone, but for their contemporaries and posterity-they are those, in a word, all those, who are recorded in history for their good or evil deeds; who have benefited or plagued mankind by their virtues or their vices;-benefited them by discoveries in science, inventions in art, and works in

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