罪 PREFACE. HE following record is not to be regarded in the light of a mere biography. In itself it is defective and incomplete. It was written, moreover, for the most part from a bed of sickness, and was undertaken for a special purpose. I had previously drawn up some brief narratives, having reference to loved ones whom death had taken from my own dwelling, and intended mainly, if not exclusively, for the benefit of my own children. It was with the same view that I began to examine and arrange a few of the papers which my revered father-in-law had left behind him, when he ceased from his earthly labours, and entered into his everlasting rest, being thoroughly convinced that there were outstanding facts in his history, and great lessons to be drawn from them, which, by the blessing of God, A were not unlikely to be serviceable, both now and in after life, to the members of my own household. I had not, however, proceeded very far in the carrying out of my projected plan, when the thought occurred to me, that by making freer use of the materials at my disposal, and adapting them for the perusal of a wider circle, I might do something in the way not only of gratifying a wish expressed by many friends, for some memorial of one whom they highly esteemed, but of impressing some solemn and important lessons, more especially on the minds of young men, when leaving the paternal roof, and commencing the business of life amid the turmoils and the temptations of the great metropolis. With this brief but necessary explanation, I send forth the little work, craving the reader to overlook its manifold imperfections, and earnestly desiring that the life of my venerated father may be virtually prolonged on the earth, by the rising up of many, who, practising the lessons which his life teaches, may be rendered instrumental in handing down to the coming generations the noble principles which the grace of God enabled him so remarkably to exemplify. J. A. W. 'Up and away like the odours of sunset, That sweeten the twilight as darkness comes on; So be my life-a thing felt but not noticed, And I but remembered by what I have done. I need not be missed, if another succeed me, To reap down those fields which in spring I have sown ; He who ploughed and who sowed is not missed by the reaper, He is only remembered by what he has done. Not myself, but the truth that in life I have spoken; Shall pass on to ages-all about me forgotten, Save the truth I have spoken, the things I have done.' |