ENTERED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS, IN THE YEAR 1863, BY

MRS. L. H. SIGOURNEY,

IN THE CLERK'S OFFICE OF THE DISTRICT COURT OF CONNECTICUT.

PREFACE.

THE ENSUING pages consist of miscellaneous extracts from a voluminous mass of manuscripts which owe their existence to the ancient adage of reading with a pen or pencil in the hand. They have accumulated during a long series of years, without the most distant idea of publication. Recently, however, it has been sug gested that what had given pleasure or edification to myself, might perform a similar office for others.

Per

The index of authors, at the close of the book, may serve as a partial guide to its contents, though in making the different quotations, care was not always taken to designate their source. haps, some apology should be offered for desultory arrangement, or that all the materials are not of equal lustre and gravity, — yet a mosaic pavement may be interesting without revealing a consecutive plan, and no bequest is more precious than pearls of refined thought, and gems of hallowed sentiment.

L. H. S.

HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT.

BIEB 19 FEB 36

SELECTIONS FROM VARIOUS SOURCES.

WASHINGTON.

"IN the possession of that mysterious quality of character manifested in a long life of unambitious service, which called by whatever name inspires the confidence, commands the respect and wins the affection of contemporaries, and grows upon the admiration of successive generations, forming a standard to which the merit of other men is referred, and a living proof that pure patriotism is not a delusion, or virtue an empty name,

no one of the sons of men has equalled George Washington."— Hon. Edward Everett; from "Life of Washington."

THE USE OF WEALTH.

"WE would not forbid people to be diligent, and frugal. Rather would we exhort Christians to gain all they can honestly, and save all they can consistently; that is, in effect, to grow rich. But what way, I ask, can we take, that our money may not sink us in perdition? There is one way, and no other. And this is that way; of those who gain all they can, and save all

they can, will likewise give all they can, then the more they gain, the more they will grow in grace, and the more treasure they will lay up in Heaven.".

Wesley.

"AH! how canst thou renounce the boundless store
Of charms that Nature to her votary yields,
The warbling woodland, the resounding shore, —
The pomp of groves and garniture of fields :
All that the genial ray of morning yields,
And all that echoes to the song of even :
All that the mountain's sheltering bosom shields,
And all the dread magnificence of Heaven!

Ah! how canst thou renounce, and hope to beforgiven?"

Beattie's Minstrel.

"ALL Nature is but art, unknown to thee,
All chance, direction that thou canst not see,
All discord, harmony not understood,

All partial evil, universal good."

Pope's Essay on Man.

"FULL many a gem of purest ray serene,
The dark, unfathom'd caves of ocean bear;
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air."

Gray's Elegy.

PITY FOR THE ERRING.

"THE little I have seen of the world, and known of the history of mankind, teaches me to look on the errors of others, in sorrow, and not in anger. When I take the history of one poor heart, that has sinned and suf