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Ha"

-1806

PREFACE.

THE various Collections already published

and adopted in schools, might seem to render this superfluous; yet the Editor, unintimidated by that reflection, ventures to offer this Selection to the Public, with a full conviction, that judicious teachers will immediately perceive its obvious utility.That excellent Collection of moral and instructive Essays, &c. THE PLEASING INSTRUCTOR, and other popular books of a like kind, have become so familiar in schools, that they pall upon the mind, and boys are inclined to consider the reading of them as a kind of task, and therefore disregard the precepts they contain. Since the time of their first publication, many excellent authors have added sufficiently to the stock of modern literature to shew the necessity for a Compilation that might combine the beauties contained in their works, with those we find in Authors that have previously been had recourse to.

The Editor's chief purpose in making this selection was, to inculcate in the minds of youth strong impressions of their moral obligations, the danger of the slightest deviation

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from the path of virtue, and those refined sensibilities of the human mind, which elevate man so infinitely beyond the rest of the creation, and fit him for rational enlightened society. The early cultivation of the virtuous, generous, and humane principles of the mind, is certainly a matter of the greatest importance; therefore he who contributes to exalt and confirm those dispositions, which adorn and ennoble human nature, may surely escape censure, even if the slightness of the means he adopts do not entitle him to any high degree of general approbation.

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