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SOLD BY JOHN MASON, 14, CITY-ROAD;
AND AT 66, PATERNOSTER-ROW.

1848.

INTRODUCTION.

The lives of distinguished persons, whether recorded for their mental abilities, the success that attended their plans, or being more immediately under the Divine control, for swaying the sceptre over a mighty nation, or for executing God's punishments, offer lessons of instruction which cannot be too often read, for they tend to establish and fortify the mind in principles which never fail to ennoble man. In the history of the human family its pages are often stained by crime so black, so foul, and so diabolical, that the mere mention of the deeds of some of its principal characters harrows up the feelings, and one is led to inquire, how is it that so much wickedness, hypocrisy, and cruelty, is permitted without immediate retribution ?

Unable as we are to solve the question, it is gratifying to find that history bears ample testimony to the fact, that however the wicked may succeed and riot in their wickedness, spreading misery and calamity around, they seldom close their earthly career without smarting under the retributive justice of God; then, destitute of inward comfort, and gnawed by remorse, they with Cain exclaim, “My punishment is greater than I can bear!” thereby leaving to all succeeding ages an admonitory lesson against the folly of being led captive by passions which they ought to have subdued.

On the other hand, biography opens a rich mine ;

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