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THE BETTER SELF:

ESSAYS FOR HOME-LIFE.

BY

HAIN FRISWELL,

AUTHOR OF THE GENTLE LIFE."

The State, or Individual [or WRITER], thrives the best who dives
deepest down into the masses of the people, and adapts itself to
the wants of the greatest number.-W. E. GLADSTONE.

That which is nearest us touches us most. The passions rise
higher at domestic than at Imperial tragedies.—SAMUEL JOON

BODI

OTHE

HENRY S. KING & CO.,

65 CCRNHILL, AND 12 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.

1875.

270. f. 466.

(All rights reserved.)

THIS VOLUME

IS WITH GREAT RESPECT AND BY PERMISSION

DEDICATED TO

THE BARONESS BURDETT-COUTTS,

WHOSE CONSTANT AIM

HAS BEEN TO HELP OTHERS TO ATTAIN

A BETTER SELF.

a 3

PREFACE.

THIS book by no means concerns the best self or the highest ideal, but simply a move upwards towards something a little higher than the dead. flat upon which we have, of late, settled. To those who live noble and high lives even in imagination, which is by far the most trodden path, the essays in this volume will seem but tame and homely. Is this, they will ask-this life of ordinary courtesy, simple and pure affection, and humdrum honesty-the better life? The answer is, Yes, it is; because pretence, sham, and disguise are as rife now as in the days when the Voice cried in the wilderness and pointed out the straight path, which was, even to the soldier-not desertion of his work nor brand-new

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