of our greatest men? Only a sentence here and there; and many a man
whose name will go down through all the ages, owes it to the truth or
the vital force of the thought embedded in a few brief lines. 

I have very little to say respecting the volume here with presented to
the public.  The principal contents appeared a short time ago in the
_Canadian Monthly_ and the _Canadian Methodist Magazine_.  They
were written at a time when my way seemed hedged around with
insurmountable difficulties, and when almost anything that could afford
me a temporary respite from the mental anxieties that weighed me down,
not only during the day, but into the long hours of the night, would
have been welcomed.  Like most unfortunates, I met Mr.  Worldly Wiseman
from day to day.  I always found him ready to point out the way I should
go and what I should do, but I have no recollection that he ever got the
breadth of a hair beyond that.  One evening I took up my pen and began
jotting down a few memories of my boyhood.  I think we are all fond of
taking retrospective glances, and more particularly when life's pathway
trends towards the end.  The relief I found while thus engaged was very
soothing, and for the time I got altogether away from the present, and
lived over again many a joyous hour.  After a time I had accumulated a