ESSENCE OF WISDOM,

DISTILLED FROM THE FLOWERS OF

ANCIENT & MODERN LITERATURE.

DISTILLED FROM THE FLOWERS OF

ANCIENT AND MODERN

LITERATURE.

BY ALBERT

66

WALKER,

AUTHOR OF "THE ROAD;" 'COUSIN ALBERT'S TALES;'
"LIFE OF SAMMY HICK;" "THE ROSE OF WHARFEDALE:"

PREFACE.

THIS little volume does not profess to be a compilation from the choicest works of every English writer, nor has the collator ambition enough to suppose that the book even faintly represents the prolific fertility of our great thinkers. He does not even claim for it a moderate amount of perfection. But every reader, in the course of his reading, has been struck by certain passages which he may have marked as being doubly welcome, since they seemed to be the very echo of his own thoughts. These passages, gathered in by the course of many years study, are here set down by one student. They are the fancies which he most admired; the sentiments which have found approval in his mind; the thoughts which have been corroborated by the actualities of an active business existence; and the proverbial philosophy, which has grown into undeniable truisms, by the light of experience. As such, the compiler presents them to the public; and if they bring one tithe of the pleasure to others that they have brought to him, the volume will accomplish a good purpose.

Otley, 1873.