TO THE READER.
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:
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
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.
ERRATUM.
Page 20. The Terrace, New Palace-yard, Westminster, was taken down in the spring of 1863; the Sun-dial had previously been removed.