SCENES AND SONGS SOCIAL LIFE. A Miscellany. BY ISAAC FITZGERALD SHEPARD, × Author of 'Poetry of Feeling,' Editor of the Christian Souvenir,' &c. BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY SAXTON & KELT, 133 WASHINGTON STREET. NEW YORK: SAXTON & MILES. 1846. In Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1846, by ISAAC F. SHEPARD, he Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Printed at Coolidge's Steam Power Printing Establishment, PREFACE. THIS book is the result of selections from the miscellaneous productions of the author, that have accumulated on his hands, and he has thought that they might not be unacceptable in an embodied form. They have been written, at intervals, generally to illustrate some principle of morals, or to enforce some virtue of social life; and the few of them that have appeared in the various magazines of the day, have enjoyed a fair share of circulation and commendation. These have mostly appeared anonymously; and the popularity that some have enjoyed without a paternity, makes the writer not unwilling to give them an honest christening, and to stand sponsor at the fount. The Tales, such as they are, are his own creation, with two exceptions; and they are, without exception, woven from the web of truth, with so much of embellishment in the texture, as the time and circumstances of their composition have rendered pleasant and desirable. Some of them are little more than a plain recital |