'As St. Austin saith of short and holy ejaculations, that they pierce BALTIMORE: PUBLISHED BY PLASKITT & CUGLE. 1841. ENTERED according to the act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven, by JOHN D. Toy, in the clerk's office of the District Court of Maryland. JOHN D. TOY, PRINTER. ΤΟ THE AMERICAN PUBLIC. THE following pages were published anonymously-and, as the favourable manner in which they have been received by the highest literary talent in this country and Europe, seems to authorize the emission of a second edition, relieved from the difficulty often attendant upon no name and no active publisher, I am emboldened now to dedicate this little work to the thoughtful and practical among American readers. The morals of early life-the philosophy of small, as well as of great things, are set forth therein, in a form so popular and condensed, as to give me the assurance that this first attempt, in our country, to distil from the ponderous volumes of ancient and modern lore, and to educe their essences, in all that concerns our conduct in nearly every relation of life, will not be permitted to expire after a very partial diffusion of a very small first edition. With this expectation (more complimentary to my countrymen and fair countrywomen than to myself) I now submit the work. BALTIMORE, 1841. DAVID HOFfman. |