ur. Of the former, 42,000 copies were
sold in the eighteen years preceding 1784. I mention this as an evidence
of its popularity.

Some thirty years ago I was requested by a friend, to recommend some
practical book to put into the hands of a young person. I named Nelson's
"Practice of True Devotion," and have since seen no reason to alter my
opinion. Let that be one of the first books that you make use of. If you
read _one_ chapter each day (and do not read more), it will last you
about three weeks. After an interval of a year or so, go through it
again.

Take next for this purpose Jeremy Taylor's "Holy Living and Dying,"
first reading (if you can borrow the book) what is said of this work by
his highly-gifted and most amiable editor, Bishop Heber. One passage
from Heber's remarks I must allow myself to quote: "But I will not
select, where all may be read with advantage, and can hardly be read
without admiration. To clothe virtue in its most picturesque and
attractive colouring; to enforce with all the terrors of the divine law,
its essential obligations; and to distinguish, in almost every instance
most successfully, between what is prudent and what is necessary; what
may fitly be done, and what cannot safely be left undone;--this is the
triumph of a Christian moralist; and this Jeremy Taylor has, in a great
degree, achieved in his Discourse on Holy Living." You will recollect
that this book was written nearly two hundred years ago, and must not be
surprised if you find a few expressions, and one or two sentiments,
rather obsolete. One of the five rules which Taylor gives in his
Dedication, "for the application of the counsels which follow," applies
to all books of a similar character. "They that will, with profit, make
use of the proper instruments of virtue, must so live as if they were
always under the physician's hand. For the counsels of religion are not
to be applied to the distempers of the soul, as men used to take
hellebore; _but they must dwell together with the spirit of a man, and
be twisted about his understanding for ever: they must be used like
nourishment, that is, by a daily care and meditation_--not like a single
medicine, and upon the actual pressure of a present necessity."

The genuine spirit of Jeremy Taylor, with more correctness of taste, is
found in that delightful book, "The Christian Year." Read it repeatedly.
It is every where full of poetry, and of the purest devotional feeling.
The more