I. R. Bripstoote. MODERN SOCIETY; OR THE MARCH OF INTELLECT, THE CONCLUSION OF MODERN ACCOMPLISHMENTS. BY CATHERINE SINCLAIR, DAUGHTER OF THE LATE RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR JOHN SINCLAIR, BART. Thus happiness depends, as Nature shows, FIFTH THOUSAND. EDINBURGH: WILLIAM WHYTE AND CO. BOOKSELLERS TO THE QUEEN DOWAGER; LONGMAN, ORME AND CO.; HAMILTON, ADAMS AND CO.; J. DUNCAN; MDCCCXXXVIII. PR5452 548762 1838 MAIN PREFACE. In the course of a very short period 4,000 copies of this volume having been disposed of, the authoress gratefully acknowledges the pleasure with which she feels thus encouraged to publish a new edition, which has been carefully revised and corrected. An attempt is made in this narrative to contrast the happiness offered to us by our Maker with the happiness which we invent for ourselves-to exemplify a wide difference between the "living fountain and the broken cistern." In our own experience, we find that the one resembles the purity and clearness of the early dawn, which grows brighter and brighter till the perfect day, while the other may be compared to an evening twilight, beginning in still gaudier hues, but growing gradually darker, till it settles into the gloom of night. While thus representing two opposite states of enjoyment, which might justly be called a parallel, since they are lines which can never be made, to meet, no hesitation has been felt in representing worldly as well as spiritual enjoyments in the brightest colours, because the superiority of the latter are more conspicuous in proportion to the accuracy with which both can be depicted. Those, indeed, who 810 |