C. BRYANT.

NEW YORK, _June, 1859_.

INTRODUCTORY.

This volume speaks so well for itself that it does not need many words of
preface to commend it to a wide circle of readers. Its rich and varied
contents, however, become far more interesting when interpreted by the
motive that won them from their authors; and when the kindly feeling that
offered them so freely is known, these gifts, like the pearls of a rosary,
will be prized not only severally but collectively, because strung
together by a sacred thread.

The story of this undertaking is a very short and simple one. Miss
Davenport, who had been for many years an active and successful teacher in
our schools and families, especially in the beautiful arts of drawing and
painting, was prostrated by a severe illness, which impaired her sight and
finally terminated in blindness.

The late Benjamin F. Butler, in a letter dated October 13, 1858, which
will have peculiar interest to the many readers who knew and honored that
excellent man, writes thus:

"Miss Davenport has for several years been personally known to me. She is
now blind and unable to follow the calling by which, before this calamity
befell her, she obtained her living. Having lost her parents in early
life, and having few relatives, and none able to assist her, she is
dependent for her support on such efforts as she is still capable of
making. These, were she a person of common fortitude, energy and
hopefulness, would be very small, for to her great privation is added very
imperfect general health. Yet she has struggled on in the hope of gaining
such a competency as should ultimately secure 'a home that she may call
her own.' I commend Miss Davenport to all who feel for the afflicted and
who wish to do good."

The Rev. Dr. S. Storrs writes: "Miss Davenport is a Christian woman, of
great excellence of character, and of many accomplishments, whom God in
his providence has made totally blind within a few years past."

We need add but two remarks to these statements--one in reference to the
volume itself, and the other in reference to her for whose welfare it is
contributed.

The volume is one of the many proofs which have been gathering for years,
of the alliance between literature and humanity. Every good and true word
that has been written from the beginning has been a minister of mercy to
every human heart which it has reached, whilst the mercy has been twice
blessed when the word so benign