Excerpt from The English Reader, or Pieces in Prose and Peotry: Selected From the Best Writers The author has endeavored to relieve the grave and serious parts of his collection, by the occasional admission of pieces which am e as well as instruct. If, however, any of his readers should think contains too great a proportion of the former, it may be ome apology to observe, that in the existing publications designed or the perusal of young persons, the preponderance is greatly on the side of gay and amusing productions. Too much attention may be paid to this me diam of improvement. When the imagination, of youth especially, is much entertained, the sober dictates of the understanding are re garded with indifl'erence - and the influence of good afl'eotions, is ei ther feeble or transient. A temperate use of such entertainment seems therefore requisite, to afford proper scope for the operations of the understanding and the heart. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.