^ INTRODUCTION. 



and moral advantage. To the philosopher they 

 furnish inestimable rules and principles of calcula- 

 tion 3 to the man of business they present measures 

 and stimulants to industry; and, above all, to the 

 christian they offer continual memorials of the end 

 of life, and unceasing excitements to moral ex- 

 ertion. 



Hence the close of one year, and the commence-- 

 ment of another, are generally marked by mutual 

 congratulations, by a peculiar train of reflexions, 

 by new plans and undertakings, and by charac- 

 teristic changes in domestic, social, and political 

 affairs. They form a period which interests the feel- 

 ings, and constitutes a prominent point in the life 

 of almost every man. 



But, on reaching the termination of an active 

 and eventful century, and entering upon a new 

 one, the emotions of the reflecting mind are still 

 more strong,, and the impressions made more va- 

 rious and interesting. This is a transition, which 

 few indi\ iduals at present on earth have before wit- 

 nessed, and which few now living will ever again 

 behold. At such a period it is natural, and it i^ 

 useful, to pause ; to review the extensive scene ^ to 

 estimate what has been done ; to inquire whether 

 we have grown wiser and better, or the reverse >. 

 and to derive those lessons of wisdom from the 

 ^vhole, which rational beings oUght ever to draw 

 from experience. While the student of chronology 

 is disputuig about tt^ time when tl^e old century 

 terminated, and the new one began* j and v/hile 



'^- It wouhl be neitbcr convenient nor seasonable to attempt, in 

 Uiis plvlce, a discussion of the question, when the nineteenth cen- 

 tury conim(?ticecl." The autJior takes for granted, that it com- 



