discord. To be sure there is a great deal of vexation and anxiety in
the world; we cannot sail upon a summer sea for ever; yet if we
preserve a calm eye and a steady hand, we can so trim our sails and
manage our helm, as to avoid the quicksands, and weather the storms
that threaten shipwreck. We are members of one great family; we are
travelling the same road, and shall arrive at the same goal. We
breathe the same air, are subject to the same bounty, and we shall,
each lie down upon the bosom of our common mother. It is not
becoming, then, that brother should hate brother; it is not proper
that friend should deceive friend; it is not right that neighbour
should deceive neighbour. We pity that man who can harbour enmity
against his fellow; he loses half the enjoyment of life; he
embitters his own existence. Let us tear from our eyes the coloured
medium that invests every object with the green hue of jealousy and
suspicion; turn, a deal ear to scandal; breathe the spirit of
charity from our hearts; let the rich gushings of human kindness
swell up as a fountain, so that the golden age will become no
fiction and islands of the blessed bloom in more than Hyperian
beauty."

It is thus that friends and neighbours should live. This is the
right way. To aid in the creation of such true harmony among men,
has the book now in your hand, reader, been compiled. May the truths
that glisten on its pages be clearly reflected in your mind; and the
errors it points out be shunned as the foes of yourself and
humanity.