Entered according to the act of Congress, in the year 1832, by Hilliard & Brown, in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. CAMBRIDGE: E. W. METCALF AND CO. BX 4827 .03 M4 1832€ INTRODUCTION. THIS little work was sent to me some time since by an English lady, and I read it with avidity and delight. I immediately thought of procuring its republication, but gave up the design on learning that it had already taken place. When I found however that the American edition had been printed in a distant part of the country, and in an uninviting form, and was rarely to be met with in this vicinity, I renewed my purpose; and with the assistance of my friend, Mr. Charles F. Barnard, who kindly undertook the necessary translations and the correction of the press, I am enabled to present to the public this uncommonly attractive and instructive work. It is an exact reprint of the third London edition, with the few following exceptions.. Several passages which are there inserted both in the French and English languages, or in the French only, are here given only in English, and in all cases in a new translation. The address at the funeral of Oberlin has been taken from the Appendix and inserted in the body of the work. Specimens of the composition of the children at school have been omitted, and one of the notes of the English edition has been removed, as I wished to introduce it with remarks into this preface I think it right to notice these changes, though they in no degree affect the character or value of the book. I think it will be acknowledged by the readers of the work, that it contains one of the most charming pictures of a good and useful life of which we have any account. This results in no degree from the skill of the author or the peculiar grace of the composition. Few books are less indebted to recommendations of this sort. Indeed we are often inclined to wish, as we read it, that it possessed more of the attractions which a tasteful hand and a glowing imagination might have imparted to it. Yet perhaps on the whole the Memoir is more valuable in its present form. The very nakedness and dryness of the statements, the very bareness of the narrative, proves how strong an interest lies in the characters and facts themselves; we are the more sure of the singular excellence of the man and his works from perceiving that they owe none of their power over our hearts to the manner in which the story is told. Perhaps indeed it may be regarded as a proof of high skill in the author, that she knew 'how to leave the subject in unadorned simplicity, to make its own impression. There is but one thing in the book which I have noticed with regret; and that is, the manner in which the author has spoken of Oberlin's delightful catholicism. Certainly few things are more beautiful and praiseworthy, or display more evidently the ascendency of the Christian over the selfish spirit, than that universal toleration, founded in faith, humility, and love, which passes by the distinctions of party and embraces às brethren, all who are Christians in life, to whatever division of the church they may belong. It seems to me, accordingly, that no one can fail to be touched with admiration at the greatness of soul displayed by Oberlin in his generous treatment of the Catholics. "His tolerance," says the Rev. F. Cunningham, "was almost unbounded. He administered the sacrament to Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinists, at the same time; and, because they would not eat the same bread, he had, on the plate, bread of different kinds, wafer, leavened, and unleavened. In every thing the same 1 |