ON THE WAYS OF MAN: OR COMPENDIOUS DISSERTATIONS, RESPECTING SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC RELATIONS AND CONCERNS, AND THE VARIOUS ECONOMY OF LIFE; INTENDED, AND CALCULATED, MORE ESPECIALLY, FOR THE USE OF THOSE IN THE COMMON RANKS OF AMERICAN SOCIETY. BY EZRA SAMPSON. "The spacious West, " And all the teeming regions of the South, AKENSIDE, HUDSON: PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR, BY STONE AND CORSS. SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW-YORK, Ss. BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the fifteenth day of September, in the 43d year of the Independence of the United States of America, EZRA SAMPSON, of the said District, hath deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as Author and Proprietor, in the words following, to wit: "The BRIEF REMARKER on the WAYS OF MAN: or Compendious Dissertations respecting Social and Domestic Relations and Concerns, and the various Economy of Life; intended, and calculated, more especially for the use of those in the Common Ranks of American Society. By Ezra Sampson." "The spacious west, "And all the teeming regions of the south, Akenside. In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled "An Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts and Books to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the time therein mentioned." And also to an Act, entitled" an Act, supplementary to an Act, entitled an act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints." JAMES DILL, Clerk of the Southern District of New-York. THE NEEDFUL APOLOGY. SINCE I have explained myself so considerably at large in the last paper in this volume, the little that remains to be said by me here is apologetical, rather than prefatory. Had it been revealed to me twenty years ago, that, at the age of about threescore and ten, I should be preparing myself to appear before the tribunal of the Public as an Author, and in a department, too, of peculiar delicacy and haz ard; I should either have discredited the revelation, or been struck by it with deep dismay. Particular circumstances, of the final issue of which I had not the least forethought, have brought about this strange event. Indeed, in former and distant years, it had sometimes occurred to me, that, essays not scholastic, but practical, written in a manner to engage general attention, and of sufficient quantity to compose a volume small and cheap, might be of special service to the public; that such a volume, replenished with the philosophy of mere plain sense in plain English,— with coarse, homely, household truths, which should come home to the business and bosom of community at large,—could hardly fail, if really well done, of being acceptable, and of producing salutary effects. But never did I deem my own abilities equal to such a task, nor had I ever, aforehand, the most distant thoughts of undertaking it myself. The series of the Brief Remarker published in the Connecticut Courant, was begun by me without any expectation of extending it further than twenty numbers, or thirty at most; and fearful I was, that, ere it were carried even to that length, I should be warned, by signs of surfeit, that it was time to stop. Far beyond all my hopes, I received, and continued to receive, information, from the respectable proprietors of that paper, that my little essays were not only welcomed at the first, but continued all along to be read with interest, and were thought to have been productive of some considerable benefit to society. This encouraged me to pro |