TO THE READER.

I HERE present you with a few suggestions, the fruits, alas! of much idleness. Such of them as are distinguisht by some capital letter, I have borrowed from my acuter friends. My own are little more than glimmerings, I had almost said dreams, of thought : not a word in them is to be taken on trust.

If then I am addressing one of that numerous class, who read to be told what to think, let me advise you to meddle with the book no further. You wish to buy a house ready furnisht: do not come to look for it in a stonequarry. But if you are building up your opinions for yourself, and only want to be provided with materials, you may meet with many things in these pages to suit you. Do not despise them for their want of name and show. Remember what the old author says, that 66 to such a one as I am, an idiota or common person, no great things, melancholizing in woods and quiet places by rivers, the Goddesse herself Truth has oftentimes appeared."

even

Reader, if you weigh me at all, weigh me patiently; judge me candidly; and may you find half the satisfaction in examining my Guesses, that I have myself had in making them.

Authors usually do not think about writing a preface, until they have reacht the conclusion; and with reason. For few have such stedfastness of purpose, and such definiteness and clear foresight of understanding, as to know, when they take up their pen, how soon they shall lay it down again. The foregoing paragraphs were written some months ago: since that time this little book has increast to more than four times the bulk then contemplated, and withal has acquired two fathers instead of one. The temptations held out by the freedom and pliant aptness of the plan,-the thoughtful excitement of lonely rambles, of gardening, and of other like occupations, in which the mind has leisure to muse during the healthful activity of the body, with the fresh, wakeful breezes blowing round it,-above all, intercourse and converse with those, every hour in whose society is rich in the blossoms of present enjoyment, and in the seeds of future meditation, in whom too the Imagination delightedly recognises living realities goodlier and fairer than her fairest and goodliest visions, so that pleasure kindles a desire in her of portraying what she cannot hope to surpass,—these causes, happening to meet together, have occasioned my becoming a principal in a work, wherein I had only lookt forward to being a subordinate auxiliary. The letter U, with which my earlier contributions were markt, has for distinction's sake continued to be affixt to them. As our minds have grown up together, have been nourisht in great measure by the same food, have sympathized in their affections and

their aversions, and been shaped reciprocally by the assimilating influences of brotherly communion, a family likeness will, I trust, be perceivable throughout these volumes, although perhaps with such differences as it is not displeasing to behold in the children of the same parents. And thus I commit this book to the world, with a prayer that He, to whom so much of it, if I may not say the whole, is devoted, will, if He think it worthy to be employed in His service, render it an instrument of good to some of His children. May it awaken some one to the knowledge of himself! May it induce some one to think more kindly of his neighbour! May it enlighten some one to behold the footsteps of God in the Creation!

May 17th, 1827.

U.

In this new edition the few remarks found among my brother's papers, suitable to the work, have been, or will be incorporated. Unfortunately for the work they are but few. Soon after the publication of the first edition, he gave up guessing at Truth, for the higher office of preaching Truth. How faithfully he discharged that office, may be seen in the two volumes of his Sermons. And now he has been raised from the earth to the full fruition of that Truth, of which he had first been the earnest seeker, and then the dutiful servant and herald.

My own portion of the work has been a good deal enlarged. On looking it over for the press. I found

much that was inaccurate, more that was unsatisfactory. Many thoughts seemed to need being more fully developt. Ten years cannot pass over one's head, least of all in these eventful times, without modifying sundry opinions. A change of position too brings a new horizon, and new points of view. And when old thoughts are awakened, it is as with old recollections: a long train of associations start up; nor is it easy to withstand the pleasure of following them out. Various however as are the matters discust or toucht on in the following pages, I would fain hope that one spirit will be felt to breathe through them. It would be a delightful reward, if they may help the young, in this age of the Confusion of Thoughts, to discern some of those principles which infuse strength and order into men's hearts and minds. Above all would I desire to suggest to my readers, how in all things, small as well as great, profane as well as sacred, it behoves us to keep our eyes fixt on the Star which led the Wise Men of old, and by which alone can any wisdom be guided, from whatsoever part of the intellectual globe, to a place where it will rejoice with exceeding great joy.

J. C. H.

January 6th, 1838.

MEMOIR.

THE publication of a new edition of the Guesses at Truth appears a fitting occasion for placing on record a brief outline of the lives of the Two Brothers who appear on the title-page as its authors.

Augustus William and Julius Charles Hare were respectively the second and third sons of Francis Hare Naylor, of Hurstmonceux Place, in Sussex, by Georgina, fourth daughter of Jonathan Shipley, Bishop of St. Asaph -the former born A.D. 1792, the latter in 1795. The education of Augustus ied him to Winchester, and then to New College, Oxford, where, in due course, according to the traditional system of the place, he passed on to a Fellowship. As a Tutor, he gained the admiration and love of his pupils; and though the isolation and comparative torpor of New College, under the system which then prevailed, narrowed the range of his influence, there are many still living who remember him with affectionate reverence. In 1829 he accepted the College living of Alton Barnes, in Wiltshire, and married, in June of the same year, Maria, daughter of the Rev. Oswald Leycester, who still survives. For three years he set himself to the work of teaching the small rural population committed to his charge (the number was under 150) with the spirit of one who does everything he undertakes thoroughly. In 1833, the failure of his health compelled him to leave England for Italy, and on February 18th in the following year he died at Rome.

The history of Augustus Hare's influence and reputatior stands in some respects parallel to that of Frederick