Excerpt from Annals of My Early Life: 1806-1846, With Occasional Compositions in Latin and English Verse I DO not know that I can better employ any leisure that may be granted to me during the short remainder of my days - being now near the end of my eighty-fourth year than in looking back over the course of my past life, with the intention of recording its main occurrences; and in this belief I pray that God may graciously vouchsafe to bless the undertaking which I now begin. The chief advantages which I promise myself from the performance of it (so far as I may be enabled to carry out the design) are these two. It will give me occasion, on the one hand, to reflect more fully and seriously than I might otherwise do upon what ever I shall discover that I have done amiss, through wilful ness, or negligence, or ignorance, and to ask God's pardon for the same in the Spirit of true repentance and, on the other hand, to renew and deepen my thankfulness for the numberless mercies I have received from the Giver of all good, from my youth up until now, notwithstanding my great and utter unworthiness, of which I am sincerely and sadly conscious. I shall endeavour to be strictly truthful - f according to my family motto - and strictly just in what ever I may record just to others and just also to myself. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.