SOCIAL, LITERARY, AND POLITICAL.

BY ROBERT WALSH.

Endeavor, without intermission, and with what good aid soever, to think justly, act uprightly, and live
usefully. For the accomplishment of those great ends of rational being-which constitute, in fact, the main
securities of worldly happiness-are indispensable a religious conscience, an enlightened judgment, a firm
character, an active spirit, and the habit of cautious discrimination.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

PHILADELPHIA:

CAREY, LEA & BLANCHARD.

1836.

U.C.D. LIBRAR

+

Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the

year 1836, by CAREY, LEA & BLANCHARD, in the Clerk's Office of the District

Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

C. Sherman & Co. Printers.

TO

J. K. MITCHELL, A. B. M. D.

PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY APPLIED TO THE ARTS, IN THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE, LECTURER ON MEDICAL CHEMISTRY IN THE PHILADELPHIA MEDICAL INSTITUTE, &c. &c.

MY DEAR SIR,

What is new of the present volumes was dictated, and what already extant, combined and arranged, in the three first weeks of a severe illness which began with the present year, and during which you officiated in the double capacity of friend and physician, with characteristic kindness and ability. As you were the only extern whose presence and conversation the debility of my nerves permitted me to enjoy, and as your cordial solicitude rendered your visits frequent, to my great satisfaction and relief, you are connected intimately in my memory with all the intellectual exercise I was able to take. This association prompts me naturally and irresistibly to dedicate these volumes to you not as a tribute of intrinsic and peculiar price, but as a memento of our intercourse, and some testimony, however inadequate, of

the impressions of esteem and gratitude which that intercourse and a long antecedent acquaintance have left upon my mind and heart.

A formal dedication usually implies an assumption of importance for the work: in this case it is nothing more than a convenient mode of proclaiming regard for merit and service; and it is quite suitably addressed to you, who have not merely mastered the sciences subsidiary to your profession, but cultivated Letters with taste and success. The maturation of such faculties, acquirements and dispositions, as those which you already possess before you have reached the middle age, cannot fail to assure a most valuable harvest to society and to yourself.

Ever faithfully, yours,

Philadelphia, February 2d, 1836.

R. W.