The publishers of this new undertaking have long been of opinion that a
new and more efficient course of moral instruction was wanted, to raise
the bulk of mankind to that standard of perfection which every Christian,
every good member of society, must be desirous of seeing attained.
It is with the most _poignant regret_ they have marked the almost total
failure of all preceding attempts of this kind. How much it has pained
them--how much they have grieved to see the inadequacy of the supplies of
knowledge to the increasing wants of the community, especially alluding
to the working and lower classes generally, _whose interests they
have deeply at heart_, they need not say: but they may say, that they
anticipate the most triumphant success in their present efforts to supply
the desideratum alluded to.
The publishers may add, that as regards the undertaking they are now
about to commence, profit is with them but a secondary consideration.
Their great object is to promote the general good by a wide _dif_fusion
of knowledge, and a liberal _inf_usion of sound and healthy principle.
If they effect this, their end is gained. The work, on which no expense
will be spared, will be sold at a price so low as to leave but a bare
remuneration for workmanship and material--so low, indeed, that a very
large demand only can protect the publishers from positive loss. But it
is not the dread of even the result that can deter them from commencing
and carrying on a work undertaken from the purest and most disinterested
motives.