REV. JAMES FLEMING, B. D., VICAR OF ST. MICHAEL'S, CHESTER SQUARE, LONDON. LONDON: THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY; AND 164 PICCADILLY. MANCHESTER: CORPORATION STREET. 270 f BRIGHTON: WESTERN ROAD. 561. PREFACE. J T is customary, and in this case necessary, that I should offer a few words by way of preface in sending forth this little volume on its mission. It was my privilege, in the city of Bath, to conduct Readings for the people for five years. They were attended by upwards of sixty thousand persons; and being judiciously managed and carefully watched, were productive of much good. It is, I believe, on this account that I have been honoured by the Committee of the Religious Tract Society with an invitation to edit the present volume. During the period referred to, a large field of literature was traversed by me in providing intellectual food for Public Readings, and my experience may therefore be of some little value to others engaged in similar efforts. Apart from Poetry—which is a very large field in itself— I know of no publication to which I have been more frequently indebted than that from which the present volume is mainly compiled. "THE LEISURE HOUR" is familiarly known in every part of the kingdom, and has long been welcome to readers and thinkers of every position in society. While admitted to the rich man's study-table, its price shuts it out from no cottage home. It has as many friends (perhaps more) among the hardhanded sons of toil as among the more comfortable classes. The |