LONDON:

BRADBURY, EVANS, AND CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS,

· PREFACE:

THE Compiler of the following pages thinks it due to state the reason of their being submitted to the reader.

The Extracts consist of a selection from a commonplace book, in which the Compiler has been accustomed to note any passages which in the course of his reading he considered worthy of remembrance.

In classifying these, an interest sprang up in comparing the various turns of thought of different minds on the same subject. Most passages will therefore be found to have some connection with the others under the same title: where attention is especially called, one of the passages has been placed as a note.

From the above remarks, the reader will perceive that the Extracts are not confined to any particular

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class, but simply what has pleased the Compiler in
his limited extent of English reading; in fact, an
Olla Podrida, in which the Compiler trusts that each
reader may find some morsel among the general medley
to suit his own taste, and that whoever takes
up this
little collection will find means to wile away an idle

hour, perhaps not idly spent, and not without some
benefit or pleasure.

Can quench the fair fire of love,
If virtue's engrain'd in the wife,

And the husband has sense to approve.

ALLEN RAMSAY. Gentle Shepherd.

B