PREFACE. 



correspondence of friends very dear to me. I ask, 

 and I am sure I shall not ask in vain, for their 

 forgiveness. One friend the grave has closed over, 



O O 



who cheered me in my task when I was weary, and 

 better able, from his rich and comprehensive mind, 

 to detect errors than any man, was always more 

 happy to encourage and to commend. Wise as the 

 serpent, gall-less as the dove, pious and pure of 

 heart, tender, affectionate and forgiving, this and more 

 than this I can say, after the trial of forty years, was 

 my friend and instructor, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. 



I am now to quit for ever a work upon which I 

 have so long and so happily been engaged. I must 

 separate from my companion, my familiar friend, 

 with whom, for more than thirty years, I have taken 

 sweet counsel. With a deep feeling of humility I 

 think of the conclusion of my labours ; but I think 

 of it with that satisfaction ever attendant upon the 

 hope of being an instrument of good. &quot; Power to 

 do good is the true and lawful end of aspiring. Merit 

 and good works is the end of man s motion, and 

 conscience of the same is the accomplishment of 

 man s rest ; for, if man can be a partaker of God s 

 theatre, he will be a partaker of God s rest.&quot;() 



I please myself with the hope that I may induce 

 some young man, who, at his entrance into life, is 

 anxious to do justice to his powers, to enjoy that 

 &quot; suavissima vita indies sent ire se fieri meliorem&quot; to 

 look into the works of our illustrious countryman. 

 I venture also to hope that, in these times of inquiry, 



(a) Essay on Great Place. 



