Now with this wise parallel of youth and age before me, with the
importance which I attach to this period of life as the precise moment
at which the final cast of the clay of life is set, and with the belief
in Goethe's statement that the destiny of any nation, at any given time,
depends on the opinions of its young men under twenty-five years of age,
I beg to call the especial attention of the young to a Hard-Pan Series
of ten chapters which follow, devoted largely to just this
forming-period of life, when the mould is ready and the governing
characteristics are fast pouring in. I beg parents and preceptors, if
they approve my efforts, to lend their aid in attracting toward these
admonitions such consideration as their merit shall warrant, and I have
so endeavored to dispose the bitterness of practical advice as to both
somewhat cover its presence and gratify a youthful and adventurous
literary taste.