a Pupil) being made in 1810, and the Letters having been written at different times since that period, will account for certain anachronisms which the critical eye may notice. The decease of the Princess Amelia and the discovery of the bodies of Henry the Eighth and Charles the First, happening since the original Journey, were events too interesting to be omitted. No one fact, indeed, has been withheld which was deemed gratifying to the curiosity, or conducive to intellectual and moral improvement.

It was the Author's singular felicity to visit WINDSOR just before HIS MAJESTY, on account of his present lamentable indisposition, had retired from public view. He witnessed his evening walks on the Terrace not more than three months previous to the event. The scene was truly interesting-its vivid impression continues and will continue to the latest period of life. Little, however, did he imagine that the emblazoned, though setting Orb of Majesty, was so soon to be withdrawn from that horizon which it had irradiated and gladdened for upwards of half a century! The Frontispiece (see Letter the Tenth) was sketched at Windsor by the Author's eldest son, and has the merit of fidelity.

The two Letters to a Friend, delineating the SAIL down the River Medway, though similar as to their nature, are not exactly of the same description. The first pourtrays the humble pleasures of a little domestic party gliding along a romantic valley, not altogether unlike the charming Tempe of classical Greece; whilst the second exhibits, on a day of public festivity, the commemorative triumphs of the Corporate Body of one of the most ancient cities in the United Kingdom! The valedictory reflections will not be found useless to the Rising Generation; and the final paragraph has the sanction of Dr. Samuel Johnson, who, in his Rambler, has furnished his readers with a paper, entitled The Voyage of Life, abounding with topics of moral instruction

With constant motion, as the moments glide,
Behold in running Life the rolling tide;
For none can stem by art, or stop by pow'r,
The flowing ocean, or the fleeting hour;
But wave by wave pursued arrives on shore,
And each impell'd behind impels before:
So Time on Time revolving we descry,
So minutes follow, and so minutes fly!

OVID.

The sage moralist, with all his repulsive asperities, exercised a hallowed vigilance over the combined and closely-allied interests of virtue and piety.

PREFACE.

1

ix

The Journal of a Trip to Paris, embellished with
Wood Cuts, from designs by its Juvenile Author,
who committed his ideas to paper, without the
remotest view to publication, inculcates this useful
lesson upon all citizens,-that a Briton wandering
through foreign climes never fails to return back
with a keener relish for the natural beauties, and
with a more just appreciation of the moral advantages
attaching to his native country-

Realms of this GLOBE! that ever circling run,
And rise alternate to embrace the sun;

Shall I with envy at my lot repine,

Because I boast so small a portion MINE?
If e'er in thought of Andalusia's vines,
Golconda's jewels or Potosi's mines,
In these or those if vanity forget

The humbler blessings of my little cot-
Then may the stream that murmurs near my door,
The waving grove that loves the mazy shore,
Withhold each soothing pleasure that they gave,
No longer murmur and no longer wave!

LANGHORNE.

Whilst the multifarious contents of the Volume
ensure its variety, the Author hopes, that the exe-
cution of his plan, enlivened by the introduction of
Poetical Extracts, will subserve the purpose which

he has had in view throughout all his Publications, with respect to Young People, of promoting their knowledge, establishing their virtue and augmenting their piety. Youth of both sexes-are THE MEN AND WOMEN of the next generation, becoming, under the salutary auspices of a well-regulated and appropriate EDUCATION, the ornament, the strength, the very bulwark of the community!

Nor let the Instructor of Youth be wearied with the good work in which he is engaged-but tremulously watch their progress towards maturity. The Sower scatters his seed with an unsparing hand-the the furrows are closed, and the vegetable treasure is apparently entombed for ever. But the kindly sun, shedding its beams, and the rain descending in fertilizing showers-soon the latent energies of the buried store shoot forth in every direction-till at length the husbandman anticipates and hails THE FAIR-COMING HARVEST! In such a Vineyard, the humblest labourer fails not of his reward.

Pullin's Row, Islington,

August 4, 1817.