cal system generally, &c. &c. Party politics are altogether excluded.

Sound principles and pure affections are the very sap of both. public and private weal: a diffusion or confirmation of them is what I chiefly desire.

An additional apology for this work is, that the number of American readers who have not seen this portion of it heretofore in print, must be relatively very great, and that not a few of those who have read it, have either forgotten the text or may prefer to possess it again in this form. The term social is used in the title-page on account of its latitude, and as comprehending moral.

In case this, the first selection, should win that degree of favour which the publishers anticipate, it may be followed by others of greater variety and scope in the topics, and possibly more worthy of attention and success, by general interest and value. But a small share comparatively of the Literary and Political Didactics has been used on the present occasion. They are reserved for a future opportunity.

To conclude: the present collection is the friendly venture of the Publishers. I remain safe and content with the knowledge that it cannot do harm to the reader, that it includes nothing sinister, personal, sectarian, feigned, or malevolent in any direction.

February, 1836.

R. W.

DIDACTICS.

HAPPINESS.

A CORRESPONDENT with the signature Eudoxia asks us to write on Happiness, for her edification. This, indeed, is a very extensive subject, embracing the widest range, the most complex qualities and the manifold varieties of the human character and situation. No other topic has been so often and so elaborately and copiously treated. Varro, the learned Roman, reckoned three hundred opinions or systems about it; how many have been published since his era, we are not bold enough to conjecture. Moreover, there is none concerning which the definitions of metaphysicians and the lessons of moralists have left fewer distinct and salutary traces upon the minds of inquirers. It is a question to which the doctrine of mental idiosyncrasy is applicable in the utmost latitude, and that of peculiarity of bodily temperament also, though not in the same degree. Doubtless, external circumstances, beyond the control of individuals, influence more or less the lot of each in this respect; but, for the most part, we are, so far, artificers or