Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1846,

By JOHN AMORY LOWELL,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

J

SIR,

то

JOHN AMORY LOWELL, ESQ.

THAT these Lectures were written is owing to you. Having had no personal acquaintance with you, nothing could have been more unexpected than your invitation to lecture before the Lowell Institute; and at that time nothing could have been farther from my thoughts than the preparation of a volume on the Evidences of Christianity. To you, also, it is owing that the Lectures are published. For these reasons it would seem fit that they should be inscribed to you; but my chief reason for wishing this, is the opportunity it gives me to express the sense I entertain, not only of the liberal spirit which prompted the appointment, but of the candor and kindness by which your whole course respecting them has been characterized.

With sincere sentiments of respect and esteem,

WILLIAMS COLLEGE, April, 1846.

I am yours,

MARK HOPKINS.