REALITIES OF LIFE. BY A COUNTRY PARSON'S DAUGHTER, AUTHOR OF "SCENES IN OUR PARISH." "Now since this worlde is a sea, and so brittle-a sea of glasse, let us seeke to passe over well; but well moored in the haven. best good. Whatsoever becomes of thy vessel-thy body, make sure to save the passenger-thy soule, LONDON: PUBLISHED BY HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO.; AND J. CHILCOTT, BRISTOL. MDCCCXXXVIII. WITH A DEEP FEELING OF THE BEAUTY OF THAT TEXT, WHICH COMMANDS, 46 THINE OWN FRIEND AND THY FATHER'S FRIEND FORSAKE NOT;" I OFFER THIS LITTLE BOOK, WITH SINCERE RESPECT AND LOVE, TO MY DEAR FATHER'S TRUE AND TRIED FRIENDS. PREFACE. IN addressing myself to the reader of the following pages, I come, I hope, with some advantage, as an old acquaintance. I have to express much gratitude for the kind and valuable commendation bestowed, from various quarters, on my former volumes. Some of the following chapters will, perhaps, be recognized; as I have met with them in five different periodicals. I cannot but own myself gratified by this proof of esteem; it has been altogether unsolicited: I have never sent but to one. As this is not my first appearance in public, I feel less necessity than I did before to state, that I always speak from facts. My stories will, I think, vouch for their own truth. My sentiments continue what they were. I am, day by day, more convinced of the importance of those truths which my Bible teaches; and of the value of that |