embered. The more you _have_, the more you
are bound to _give_. Common sense, as well as the Scripture, says, 'It
is more blessed to give than to receive.' Remember that as you advance
in years you are bound to avoid falling into the very errors which,
'out of your own mouth' you have 'condemned' in those who have gone
before you; and to make yourselves as acceptable as you can to the
young, in order to secure their confidence, and impart to them, little
by little, those accumulated treasures of experience which you have
acquired in going through life, but which must otherwise, to a very
great extent, be buried with you in your graves.

But, my young friends, there is one method besides conversation, in
which you may come at the wisdom of the aged; and that is through the
medium of books. _Many_ old persons have _written_ well, and you cannot
do better than to avail yourselves of their instructions. This method
has even one advantage over conversation. In the perusal of a book, you
are not so often prejudiced or disgusted by the repulsive and perhaps
chilling manner of him who wrote it, as you might have been from his
conversation and company.

I cannot but indulge the hope that you will find some valuable
information and useful advice in _this_ little book. It has cost me
much labor to embody, in so small a compass, the results of my own
experience on such a variety of subjects, and to arrange my thoughts in
such a manner as seemed to me most likely to arrest and secure your
attention. The work, however, is not wholly the result of my own
experience, for I have derived many valuable thoughts from other
writers.

An introductory chapter or preface is usually rather dry, but if this
should prove sufficiently interesting to deserve your attention till
you have read it, and the table of contents, thoroughly, I have strong
hopes that you will read the rest of the book. And in accordance with
my own principles, I believe you will try to follow my advice; for I
take it for granted that none will purchase and read this work but such
as are willing to be advised. I repeat it, therefore--I go upon the
presumption that my advice will, in the main, be followed. Not at every
moment of your lives, it is true; for you will be exposed on all sides
to temptation, and, I fear, sometimes fall. But when you come to review
the chapter (for I hope I have written nothing but what is worth a
second reading) which contains directions on tha