Excerpt from Writings of Rev. William Bradford Homer: Late Pastor of the Congregational Church in South Bwerwick, Me;, With an Introductory Essay and a Memoir It was with great reluctance that the editor of the present vol ume undertook to prepare it for the press. He well knew that Mr. Homer did not write for the public eye, that he dreaded the criticisms of the multitude' and would have shrunk back from the remotest suggestion Of printing his posthumous remains. Ten I am gone, he once remarked, I wish that nothing more than my name and my age may be told to those who sur vive me. Many Of his compositions were written in haste, and but few Of them had received the finish that he might have given. The editor was also aware that the volume ought to be issued sooner than he could hope for sufficient health even to commence the preparing of it, and he therefore endeavored to devolve the labor upon other hands, but in vain. Denied almost entirely the use Of his eyes, he has been obliged to omit some correct ing processes which he would gladly have performed; and fearing to mar the individuality of Mr. Homer's writings, he has left unmodified some of the statements that seem to him not entirely accurate. NO alterations have been made but such as leave unimpaired the identity of Mr. Homer's character and style, and such as when once suggested to him would probably have received his sanction. In delineating the character of Mr. Homer the editor has been much assisted by several friends. 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.