Repair No. 2.31 ENTERED according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New York. JOHN F. TROW, New York. ADVERTISEMENT. Ar the suggestion of a friend, who is himself an author, I have named this volume from its first article; partly because it must have a name, and partly because the matter of it represents the spontaneous overplus and literary by-play of a laborious profession. A good many of the articles it contains have been published before in the pamphlet form; and the frequent letters I receive, requesting copies, when they are no longer to be had, have suggested, in fact, this republication of them in a more permanent shape. It will not be amiss that articles are inserted, which have not before been published. As the contributions of the volume represent opinions and impressions that belong to dates, or periods of life, widely separated, no exact consistency of view will be expected or demanded. In the article on "The Growth of Law," a reflection more severe by implication than by statement, is cast upon those reformers who have it for a point of endeavor, to show that slavery was not permitted in the ancient Scriptures. I confess that my impressions are somewhat modified by the late argument of my friend Dr. J. P. Thompson. At the same |