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ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1849, by

GEORGE B. CHEEVER,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.

THOMAS B. SMITH, STEREOTYPER, 216 WILLIAM STREET, N. Y.

ROBERT CRAIGUEAD, PRINTER.

PREFACE.

In a great forest, when Spring, Summer, and Autumn have renewed and finished their work, the leaves that fall off are never lost, but still have many uses. They may pass, though trodden under foot, into the life of brighter and fresher leaves, although they possess within them no power to reproduce a tree. Thus our thoughts, abandoned to the world, may do some good, provided a good nature is in them, and not the depravity and death of our moral nature, even though they may seem to have no great active power, except merely to weave a part of the common mould where mind is nourished. Still, if of a pure moral tendency, they may have a good share of influence in producing another fresh and vigorous foliage. On this ground, any right-minded Pilgrim through our world may be pardoned for the publication of a Book of Leaves.

If they are only leaves, so they be pure leaves, they can do no harm. If efficacious seeds are found within them and among them, although these be not of much note at present, yet possibly they may grow the better and more surely for not being noticed, in some minds on which the leaves have fallen.

We cannot help thinking; and we are ever influencing others by our thoughts; for our accustomed thoughts form

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