Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by

LEE AND SHEPARD,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

PREFACE.

HAVING been invited, several years ago, to deliver a course of lectures before the Lowell Institute, in Boston, I accordingly delivered those which I now venture to print. The hall would, I believe, hold twelve hundred; but such was the desire to hear, that a sufficient number could not be accommodated. Each lecture was therefore repeated, at three o'clock in the afternoon, on the day following. I was then in health and spirits; now, alas! I am in an illness which will close but with my death. In sending forth my book, therefore, in my weakness, I hope it may be as generously received by the public, as the lectures spoken from my lips were by the audience. HENRY GILES.

QUINCY, January 1, 1868.