HENRI; ов, THE WEB AND WOOF OF LIFE. BY WILLIAM G. CAMBRIDGE. "The web of our life is a mingled yarn, good and ill together: our virtues would be ILLUSTRATED BY BILLINGS. Third Thousand. BOSTON: ABEL TOMPKINS AND B. B. MUSSEY & CO. 813 C1447 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, BY WILLIAM G. CAMBRIDGE, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. STEREOTYPED BY NEW ENGLAND TYPE AND STEREOTYPE FOUNDERY, THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY NOTE TO THE READER. In presenting a new and illustrated edition of the Web and Woof of Life to the public, I have deemed it appropriate to add this note. It was not my design to give this work, as some have supposed, a sectarian bias. Deacon Webber was not introduced as a sample of deacons, or any sect of Christians. He does represent a class in the church, but not the church itself. I am aware that such a character may seem impossible, — such a mingling of cant, piety and wickedness; and yet there are just such religionists as he. It has been painful to me that any one should suppose, for a moment, that the deacon was intended as a representative of Orthodoxy in any of its phases. My object was to paint the hypocrite,—to show up the abuse of little, defenceless children. I am acquainted with deacons in the same church who are the opposites of Deacon Webber; and I should much rather have described their character, had it accorded with my design in writing the book. For the kind manner in which the book has been received by the public, I am deeply grateful. That it is open to criticism, as a literary production, I well know; but let the reader remember that the author knew no freedom from pain while writing the work, and he will be more disposed to exercise the divine virtue of charity. PREFACE. READER, my little book is before you, and I would fain believe that I have not toiled in vain to make it, in some degree at least, interesting and worthy of your approval. I am painfully conscious of its imperfections, and yet I venture to hope that it has some excellences which will not be entirely overlooked, even though you find many defects and blemishes. What though there are broken and mended threads, and parts which are rough and unfinished; they do not, I trust, mar the whole fabric, although they affect its beauty and perfection. The mechanism of the brain is not always in good condition; and the rushing blood, which turns the great wheel of thought, and keeps the machinery in motion, sometimes gets low and sluggish in its course, so that the woof-threads of the mind are not shot through the warp with the quickness and uniformity which insure smoothness and perfection. Again, the stream rises and dashes on impetuously, and the machinery is uneven in its movements, quick or slow; and then threads are broken or but loosely drawn, and the work is not well done. It is well, at such times, to shut down the gates, and let the machinery rest; but the poor artisan may not always feel at |