Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]

Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1836, by HILLIARD, GRAY & Co., in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

[blocks in formation]

PREFACE.

[ocr errors]

THESE two volumes contain the greater part of my contributions to periodicals during the years 1829, 30, 31, and 32. They are miscellaneous in their character, and were written without the slightest reference to each other. Each one presents the thought with which my mind was engrossed at the time; and, in each case, the thought fashioned for itself the form in which it should appear. Hence the diversity of styles of composition in these pieces, and their proportionate inequality of merit. Hence, also, the classification which is exhibited in the table of contents; a classification intended only for convenience of reference.

On looking over these pieces, after an interval of four years, during which they were wholly forgotten, it is evident to me that one presiding idea must have been in my mind during the composition of the whole; dawning over the first, and brightening up to the last. One piece bears the name of The Progress of Worship. This name might, with equal propriety, be given to the tale called Solitude and Society; to the parable of the Hermit who went out to his matins ; to the verses headed The Three Ages of the Soul; and to the 2d No. of the Sabbath Musings: and I am finally tempted to give this title to the whole book. Its application, however, might not appear so clear to others as to myself; and I shall therefore confine myself to indicating it by a second classification in this Preface.

« FöregåendeFortsätt »