THE

YOUNG MAN.

OR

GUIDE TO KNOWLEDGE,

VIRTUE AND HAPPINESS.

"An active life is virtue's proper sphere;
To do and suffer is our duty here;
Foes to encounter, vices to disdain,
Follies to shun, and passions to restrain."

Lowell:

NATHANIEL L. DAYTON.
1845.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1814, By N. L. DAYTON,

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

Munroe & Francis, Printers,
Boston.

PREFACE.

THIS little book has been prepared to supply a deficiency, which has been sensibly experienced, of a work adapted to the wants and position of the young men of our community, which could be presented in a less expensive, and consequently more generally attainable form, than any of its class that have heretofore appeared before the public. In the preparation of this volume, we have carefully availed ourselves of the best suggestions on secular and moral subjects of some of its excellent predecessors, and have scrupulously excluded whatever is inconsistent with the most refined moral taste. We cherish the hope that it may be the humble instrument of unfolding to some the beauties of the consistent

moral character-of awakening in others aspirations after higher and purer attainments-and of encouraging all who read its pages in the formation of that character which "hath the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come."