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النشر الإلكتروني

OR THE

RECOLLECTIONS OF A MAN OF THE WORLD.

Nathan. Allow me to relate a tale.

Saladin. Why not?

I always was a friend to tales well told.
Nathan. "Well told"-that's not precisely my affair,

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

LESSING.

PHILADELPHIA:

LEA & BLANCHARD,

SUCCESSORS TO CAREY & CO.

Entered, according to the Act of Congress, by LEA AND BLANCHARD, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

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INTRODUCTION.

IT was the remark of an eminent moralist,-one of that high order of spirits which cannot err without instructing, -that there was scarce any man existing, from an account of whose life some valuable information might not be obtained. And, in truth, it is not easy to believe that any one has been so listless a hearer of the instructions of experience as not to have treasured up some golden sentence which the world might stoop to hear, The path of life is thickly strewn with moral precepts, and blinder than the blind old King of Corinth must he be, who has not read some wisdom as he passed along. The observing will find it in the fate of others, and they that will not observe, will feel it in their own. Whether we be those whom others have thought happy, or those who have thought themselves miserable, whether our life has been spent in the shadow of retirement, or the sunshine of public business, we may all, at its close, make some contribution to the grand magazine of prudential experience, whereby the young are instructed and the old comforted.

The scenes of retrospection differ from those of anticipation, in coming to us heightened by the sense of their reality and the feeling which they excite, whether of gladness or regret, is one which fancy and hope cannot brighten, fear or despondency depress. Happy then are those to whom the retrospect of life presents a scene of virtue; for whom, in a different sense from the poet's, "the thought of their past years doth breed perpetual benediction." For them, the morning-star of memory. twinkles gladly, in its pure and holy lustre, and leads, like the star of old, to joys that cannot be measured. "Respice, Aspice, Prospice," said holy St. Bernard;—and to them it is a precept of happiness. They contemplate

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