PREFACE.

THE individuals whose lineaments of character are sketched in this volume, comprise a period of thirteen centuries, and exhibit almost every variety of station, from the wilderness to the throne. They differ in age and sex, in intellect and attainment, in clime, profession and tenet, yet in one respect they are alike. Statesmen or divines, poets or philosophers, in poverty or in wealth, one possession was common to all. The favorite of genius and the child of obscurity, derived from the same source, that "knowledge which maketh wise unto salvation." Divided as widely as the eagle soaring among the stars, from the lowliest mother-bird

upon its grassy nest,-to one single, simple hope they came at last.

If we admit, for a moment, that religious hope to have been a delusion, it were still a pity to pass through life without its solace. Still more mournful to tremble at the gate of death, without its sanction.

May we all, who shall from these pages cultivate an acquaintance with the great and good, know the sustaining power of that "faith which worketh by love,' and find a smile on the face of the dark-winged angel, when with cold hand he leadeth us to our Father's House.

HARTFORD, CONN.,

Dec. 25, 1851.

L. H. S.

330

MONICA.

MONICA, a native of Tagaste, in Numidia,

was born about the year 330. She early manifested ardent affections and an amiable disposition. She had also strong religious tendencies, which were cherished more by the instructions of a pious and infirm domestic in her father's family, than by the influence or example of her parents. She married a man by the name of Patricius, from an obscure station in society, a pagan, of an ambitious, impetuous temper, but warm-hearted and full of generosity.

Their only child, Augustine, who was born November 13th, 354, they regarded with the fondest parental affection. In infancy, he displayed strong sensibilities, and a brilliant