HAPPY EVENINGS.

LONDON:

R. CLAY, PRINTER, BREAD STREET HILL.

OR, THE

LITERARY INSTITUTION AT HOME.

BY

CLARA LUCAS BALFOUR,

AUTHOR OF "THE WOMEN OF SCRIPTURE," "MORAL HEROISM,"
ETC. ETC.

"Dear tranquil time, when the sweet sense
Of Home is sweetest."-S. T. Coleridge.

"Home!

There is a magic in that little word,

It is a mystic circle that surrounds
Comforts and virtues never known beyond
The hallow'd limit."-Robert Southey.

LONDON:

HOULSTON AND STONEMAN,

65, PATERNOSTER Row.

1857.
270. C. 32.

PREFACE.

THE object of the following pages is not only to present a record of the pursuits that enabled a family circle, thrown on their own resources, to secure instructive as well as innocent amusement during winter evenings, but to suggest a like course to many households similarly situated.

The habit of depending on something out of, and beyond the home circle, for improvement and recreation, has the effect too often of weakening family ties, and making the domestic hearth a comparatively dull place, while mental indolence individually, and dissatisfaction relatively, are the result.