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TIME and Human Life are the staple subjects of the following pages.
These are great matters for so small a book, and may remind you of the
philosophical scheme of compressing the world into a nutshell. Now,
although we have as yet no means of determining exactly what relation
this latter idea has to truth,—it is certain that the rapid
multiplication of books incessantly presses upon us, that “condensation
is the result of time and experience, which reject what is no longer
essential.” Such is the treatment adopted in the present volume, in
which, by _focusing_ great truths from the Living and the Dead, is
sought to be exemplified the moral couplet:
Honour and shame from no condition rise;
Act well your part—there all the honour lies.
As a companion volume to _Things not Generally Known_, it is hoped that
_Things to be Remembered_ may be as popularly received as its
predecessor. To render the present work more directly of practical
application, the sketches of character which it contains have been drawn
in great measure from our own time, so as to give the book a current
interest. Meanwhile, historic gossip has not been eschewed; but its
piquancy has been sparingly used.
The present is, in many respects, a more reflective volume than its
predecessor: for it is scarcely possible to illustrate the Ages of Man
without
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.
This is one of the byways of the book: its highway lies through the
crowded city, and upon “the full tide of human affairs;” and the
Experiences here set down are, in common parlance, _original_, and have
been chiefly garnered throughout a long life, in which truthful
observation has been the cardinal aim.
With these few words of introduction, I commend to your indulgence this
volume of _Things to be Remembered in Daily Life_, in the hope that its
contents may be considered worthy of the reminiscence.
_London, March 1863._
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