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THE

DISCIPLINE OF LIFE.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act that each to-morrow
Find us further than to-day.

In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of life,

Be not like dumb driven cattle-

Be a hero in the strife!

LONGFELLOW.

2 Ponsonby,

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

LONDON:

HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER,

GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET.

1848.

F. Sholerl, Jun., Printer to H.R.II. Prince Albert, 51, Rupert Street.

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The object of the following book has been, as the title imports, to show how characters may be tried and improved through the common events of common life.

I believe reality to be stranger than fiction, life to be more romantic than any romance ever yet written; but the strange events of life are, "like angels' visits, few and far between." They come but at intervals, and come not to all. My wish was rather to show the trials and temptations of common life-such life as all may know; no exciting scenes, no startling incidents; with but just so much of romance as at some time or other tinges the life of almost all men.

I have, therefore, chosen the quietest and simplest scenes of the world, and have en

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