Might I give counsel to any young man, I would say to him, Try to frequent the
company of your betters. In books and life, that is the most wholesome society. Learn
to admire rightly: the great pleasure of life is that. Note what the great men admired:
they admired great things. Narrow spirits admire basely, and worship meanly.
W. M. THACKER, Y.

LIBRA
UNIV

CALIFORNI

BOSTON:

JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY,
LATE TICKNOR & Fields, and FIELDS, OSGOOD, & Co.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by

TICKNOR AND FIELDS,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts

35310

University Press, Cambridge :
Stereotyped and Printed by Welch, Bigelow, & Co.

56

PREFACE.

THE author has pleasure in offering to the American public, through the medium of the Messrs. Ticknor and Fields, - at whose request the collection has been made, the following Brief Biographies, many of which have been published by him at various times in English periodicals, in the hope that their perusal will be found not without some instruction and interest. One of the articles in the volume is from the pen of an American friend.

LONDON, July 24, 1860.