THE

YOUNG MAN'S

CLOSET LIBRARY.

BY REV. ROBERT PHILIP,

OF MABERLY CHAPEL.

WITH

AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY,

BY REV. ALBERT BARNES.

NEW YORK:

D. APPLETON & CO., 200 BROADWAY.

4436

C1816.25.40

NARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY

1874, Sept. 30, list of Joshua Frvery, 16.D, (4.26.1818)

Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1836, by

D. APPLETON & CO.,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York.

STEREOTYPED BY REDFIELD & LINDSAY,

No. 13 Chambers-street, New-York.

INTRODUCTION.

It must have occurred to the observers of the aspect of the present times, to have noticed the unusual number of books that are addressed particularly to young men. Many volumes of lectures addressed to this class of our population, have been recently issued from the press. Our public speakers every where advert to their character, temptations, dangers and prospects, with deep solicitude; and all our benevolent societies, that contemplate the moral and intellectual improvement of the race, regard them with peculiar, and with growing interest. Probably at no period

of the world has there been so decided a reference to young men in public doings as in our own times. The case of the young in general, has indeed, excited the attention always of the moralist, and the friend of human improvement. But never before, has there been so much anxiety evinced to guard young men from the ways of sin, and to secure their aid in the cause of virtue.

Our own country has been more distinguished for their efforts than any other. Probably the best books adapted to this class of our population have been furnished by writers in our own country. The reason is obvious. The growing importance of this portion of our community has been here more deeply felt than elsewhere. They take a more active, and a more important part in public life here

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than in other countries. They come soonest on the stage of action; and their powers are more early called forth in the boundless fields of enterprise that are opened in this land. If those powers are not brought under wholesome restraint, and subjected to pure moral principle early, it is felt that they will soon be beyond the reach of admonition and control. And in a country, too, where all offices are in the power of the people, and the character of a people will determine the character of the government, it is felt that it is of unspeakable importance, that those who are soon to control the destinies of the nation, should be imbued with sound moral, political, and religious principles. In a government where office and power are hereditary, the accession of one generation to the place of another, is a matter of much less importance than where all offices are elective. A few years, when young men are advancing on the stage of life here, may essentially change the character of our institutions. All our offices shall pass into other hands; and into hands too, where the only security that a wise course of measures, that may have been already commenced, shall be pursued, will depend entirely on the character of those who shall advance to take possession of the places of power. There is no titled nobility; there is no aristocracy; there is no privileged order, where the interest, and the very existence of the order depend on stability, and where that interest would be a guarantee against change. All, here, depends on character. We can point to no other security; we have no other hope of stability and permanency in any of our institutions. We have no standing armies that can guard their permanency. We have no prejudice even in favour of any long-established order of things. All the prejudices and preferences in this country, tend rather to change, and to revolution; to experiment, and to some more rapid and decided mode of attempting to advance the interests of the commonwealth.

All the institutions which we so much prize, must be soon in the hands of those who are now young men. They

will preside in our colleges and seminaries of learning; they will occupy our benches of justice; they will constitute the ministers of religion, the practitioners of the healing art, and the makers of the laws; they will fill the ranks of the most humble, and the most elevated employments. Somewhere in this mass of expanding mind are now those who in a few years will occupy the seats of senators, and who shall be the presidents, and governors of the Republic. At the present time, their minds are receiving a direction, that shall in a short time direct the destinies of this vast population, and when power shall be felt in the vast plans and purposes that are to be developed in the new world.

It is no wonder, therefore, that the importance of this class of our population should attract increasing attention. Alike by the virtuous and the evil; the sober and the dissolute, it is felt that every enterprise depends on their character. Bad men feel that their hope of success is there; and good men know that all they hold dear must soon pass into their hands. Bad men originate plans of enterprise that contemplate the co-operation of young men, and purposes, if evil, that shall draw them from the ways of virtue; and good men feel the necessity of endeavouring as much as possible to counteract those efforts, and of securing their co-operation in the cause of virtue.

It may be proper here just to hint at some of the causes why good men have felt so much solicitude in regard to the character and principles of young men. Some of those causes are the following :

The prevalent vices in this nation peculiarly assail them; and the arrangements which are made to propagate and extend iniquity contemplate peculiarly young men. It would be interesting to go over the catalogue of vices that exist in this land, and to ascertain how many of the arrangements and temptations contemplate young men, and how few have any reference to any other class of the community. Atheists and profligates have little expectation of increasing