Page:Letters of Life.djvu/348

336 about three hundred pages. I felt a peculiar degree of diffidence about this publication, and offer it in my journal "as an oblation at His footstool who alone giveth guiding wisdom and sustaining strength, and who is able to grant that it may implant in the young mind some seeds of pure motive and prevailing piety."

After its unexpected publication in England and Scotland, where it was very kindly received, I was embarrassed by the solicitations of publishers wishing to secure the copyright. It has appeared, for the last sixteen or eighteen years, under the auspices of Harper & Brothers, in New York, and still meets a steady sale, having passed through between twenty and thirty editions, including those on the other side of the Atlantic.

15 "Sketches."

Six tales and sketches are contained in this volume of two hundred and sixteen pages, several of which have a historical basis, with some sprinkling of invention. It was brought out by Philadelphia publishers, under the patronage of my late highly respected friend, George Griffin, of New York, whose legal knowledge guided me in those contracts which the business feature of my literary course demanded; while his intellectual tastes and kind encouragement prompted and aided its available industry. Feelingly do I pay this tribute of gratitude to his disinterested goodness. Agreeing with