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PREFACE.

THE works contained in this volume are published with the permission of their beloved and venerated Author. The employment of preparing them for the press has been consoling to the Editor, after a painful separation from one, whose society it was his delightful privilege for a long period to enjoy, with a continuance of domestic harmony which knew not the interruption of a single day. There never was a person, whose active benevolence and unaffected piety rendered him the object of a warmer attachment to those by whom he was surrounded. This circumstance might lead them to wish for a lengthened and minute account of the life of that person, whom they loved for his kindness, and whose virtues inspired so much veneration. These wishes, however, must give way before a respectful attention to the desires of their departed friend. Averse from ostentation of every kind, the Author frequently expressed a hope, that no Biogra

its subject. It is only permitted, therefore, to fond regret and tender affection to state, that every one who knew intimately this exemplary character, will testify that his life was spent in consulting the happiness of others, rather than his own. They can speak of his benevolent and cheerful countenance, the index to a guileless heart, which diffused comfort among all who shared his society! They well remember his animated conversation, full of kindness, talent, information, and great powers of memory in relating anecdotes. They know his assiduity in business. They recollect the munificence of his disposition, and what pleasure he felt in relieving distress, conveying such relief in a manner the most delicate and unobtrusive!

Some individuals, who had not any means of knowing him, excepting from acts of a public and official nature, may occasionally have both felt and also expressed themselves in a manner not consistent with what has been above stated. This is a fact which ought neither to excite surprise, nor occasion the least particle of resentment; such feelings and observations having been entertained and made by those who were able to judge merely from outward actions, in ignorance of the motives by which those actions were dictated. Most happy in having been

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