Sermons, and Other Miscellaneous Pieces

ADVERTISEMENT.

AMONG other literary projects entertained by Dr. Hunter, and which death, alas! prevented him from executing, was that of publishing a selection of Letters which had come under his observation, written chiefly by members of his own family, and applicable to, because they had arisen out of, the varied circumstances of real life and real feeling. The idea was first suggested to him by the accumulation of letters written by his son Thomas. The death of this much loved child only tended to strengthen his resolution of erecting from his own productions some memorial to his memory. In conformity to this design he had already planned a preface, and sketched the order of the work, when death intervened, and, for a time, blasted the project.

The same motives, however, which prompted the publication of these Sermons, continued to urge the execution of this his favourite scheme, and indeed to

urge it with redoubled force. In publishing the present Volumes a duty is discharged to Dr. Hunter only. In endeavouring to execute one of his darling plans, a duty will be discharged both toward himself and his son, and the memory of neither, we are confident, will suffer from the unreserved display which will here be made of their character.

Having thus spoken of the private feelings which urge the printing of these Letters, it remains to state the claims which, we trust, they will be found to possess upon public favour. The first and chief of these is theirown intrinsic merit, sanctioned by the approbation of Dr. Hunter, who, though a fond father, was certainly never blind to the faults of his children, either as to talents or feeling. The second is the great desideratum in literature of a body of epistles written in a style adapted to every capacity, and claiming, at the same time, the attention of the student from their merits, and of the man of business from their simplicity-we call it a desideratum-for if we except the correspondence of Lady Mary Wortley Montague, of Robert Burns, and of William Cowper,

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.

To the young, this publication will be found not without its charms, and certainly not without its peculiar utility. They are the letters of a young person of no common ability, and who, though cut off by an early death, has in them left a fair testimonial of his talents and his virtues. In them will be found lessons of filial duty and fraternal affection, of ardent friendship and sincere attachment, and the whole clothed in the language of a cultivated mind. To insist farther upon the advantages of such a publication to youth is obviously unnecessary.

It is sincerely hoped that this will not be considered as an attempt to draw further upon that fund of private friendship, from which the Editors of this work acknowledge to have already received so many obligations. Deprecating, as they do, any such idea, the nature and real merits of the work will, they are confident, fully secure them from the imputation, which, should they even suffer in the minds of a few, there will remain to them the satisfaction of having discharged a sacred duty to a father, a brother, and a friend.