Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852, by

ABEL C. THOMAS,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

STEREOTYPED BY L. JOHNSON & CO.

PHILADELPHIA.

MEST 31

BX 1969 738

dop. I

PREFACE.

THIS BOOK was written by repeated solicitation of personal friends, whose partiality for the author may have biassed their judgment in regard to the general interest of the publication. It was commenced in the early part of November last, and pleasantly occupied such winter-hours as could be spared from current duties.

There are many difficulties in writing a self-history, not the least of which is in the troublesome EGo. Even when circumlocution is resorted to as a means of hiding him, that respectable gentleman insists on rising up as a Saul among the children of Israel, even though it be on tip-toe or on stilts. He has, in some sort, a right to be seen and heard, and if he shall unreasonably obtrude in these pages, the reader, it is hoped, will charitably consider the infirmity of the EGo tribe.

The way-marks of youth are rarely forgotten. The order and dates of manhood-events were determined, partly by private memoranda, partly by the minutes of ecclesiastical bodies, and partly by the papers with which the writer has been connected, editorially or otherwise.

Some of the incidents have before been published, a few have been recalled by persons acquainted with the

facts, others have been revived by association, but chief reliance has been placed on a retentive memory. It is not pretended that the precise phraseology has been retained, in dialogue, but always the substance.

The book is not a journal, but a sort of hop-step-andjump narrative. It is not a chain, but a succession of seemingly independent links. Every inch of the road has been travelled, but only a few foot-prints have here been registered. Every thought, feeling, and fact of the journey has had its part in the relations of cause and effect, but only the prominent incidents have here been recorded.

Many passages in the unwritten-diary of every man, are blotted out by Time-even many which might be reviewed with profit. The evil is compensated by the erasure of many paragraphs which would serve no useful purpose in the perusal of remembrance. Recollections themselves should always be subject to prudent discrimination when types are in prospect. Let good intentions apologize for any present mis-judgment in this respect.

The choice would naturally fall on incidents which have greatest interest with the author. With a spirit naturally gay, and a disposition to join the circles of consistent good-humor, he could readily have filled these pages with general instruction and amusement. He preferred, however, to indulge largely in elucidation and defence of those trustful views of the Supreme Being which underlie, embrace, and crown all Religion and Morality. The book would not be a faithful por