THE REFORMED.

AN OLD SAILOR'S LEGACY.

The wholesom'st meats that are will breed satiety
Except we should admit of some variety.
In music, notes must be some high, some base.
And thus I say, these pages have intendment,
Still kept within the lists of good sobriety,
To work in men's ill manners good amendment;
Wherefore if any think the book unseasonable,
Their stoic minds are foes to good society,
And men of reason may think them unreasonable,
It is an act of virtue and of piety,

To warn men of their sins in any sort,

In prose,

in verse, in earnest, or in sport.

Sir John Harrington.

BOSTON:

USHER & STRICKLAND,

1841.

Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1841,

by Usher & Strickland, in the Clerk's office of the District Court of Massachusetts.

JOHN F. HALL & CO., PRINTERS,

Reading, Mass.

PREFACE.

THE wise man saith, "Of making of books there is no end;" and we trust there never will so long as man is permitted to occupy this terrestial habitation,- for we are persuaded that they do more good than evil. Kind reader, we herewith present you a little book, humbly hoping that you will find it readable. We deem it proper, at the threshold hereof, to make a brief statement of the object we had in view in writing it, so that, if it meet your approbation, you may buy it, and read it; but if you do not approve of said object, that you may go your way and neither trouble yourself, nor us, any farther about the matter. First of all, then, this book is designed to help forward the great TEMPERANCE ENTERPRISE; we have endeavored, to shadow forth the evils of drunkenness through the experience of the hero of the following narative, who has been, as he himself confesses, a desperate tipler. It is but recently that he be

gan to live; for he justly regards his past life as a dreary, sterile waste as having been "stale, flat, and unprofitable." Intoxicating liquor, he affirms, has been the sole cause of this utter barenness; for since he has abjured the accursed thing, life's aspect has almost totally changedthe blossoms of " auspicious hope" are gloriously expanding around his newly-entered path, giving bright promise of the substantial fruit of happiness.

Independently of their moral, the adventures of our hero will be found to be somewhat interesting, as he has past through many and various vicissitudes. We regret that we have not been able to set them forth in a manner commensurate with their intrinsic interest. Our apology must be our inexperience in narrative writing.

The grave reader, — for we hope to have many such, — may perchance think that we have indulged in too much levity in recording the degration of our hero. All we can say, is, that those things which partake of the ludicrous should, we think, be presented in their appropriate phasis. We are endowed with risible propensities which pre-supposes that there is something to laugh at.

Though 'twould grieve a soul to see God's image So blemished and defaced, yet men do act

Such antic and such comic lunacies

That spite of sorrow, they will make you smile." The saintly George Herbert says even, that "All things are big with jest; nothing that's plain But may be witty if thou hast the vein."

Such as this book is, beloved reader, we commend it to your favorable notice, and if you buy it, may it do you much good.

A3

L. C.