Sprague, William B. Letters on Practical Subjects, to a Daughter. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1834. Third American Edition, Revised and Enlarged. [11510]
Teal cloth with blind patterns, title in gilt to spine, a bit edge-worn, joints good, 7 1/2 x 4 3/4 inches, bottom board with a few small paper pieces stuck to it. 281 pp., 6 pp. publisher's catalogue, foxing. There is a dark stain in the margins of the bottom inside corners in about half of the book. Does not affect any text. Good. Hardcover.
"The following letters were originally designed to be preserved in manuscript for a motherless child." - Preface. Spiritual and practical advice for young women. Includes such topics as Early Friendships, Education, Independence of Mind, Manners, Conversation, Amusements, Marriage, Practical Religion, Self Knowledge, Self Government, Humility, Devotion, Christian Zeal, &c.
William Buell Sprague (1795-1876), born in Andover, Connecticut; graduated at Yale in 1815, and afterwards studied at Princeton for two years. He was ordained in the Congregational Church at West Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1819 and was pastor there for ten years. In 1829 he accepted a call to the Second Presbyterian Church in Albany and served in that congregation as pastor for forty years.
“He has been well and truly described as an ‘illustrious man; a cultivated, elegant, voluminous, useful and popular preacher; an indefatigable and successful pastor; an unselfish and devoted friend; loving, genial, pure, and noble; an Israelite, indeed, in whom there was no guile; one of the most childlike, unsophisticated, and charitable of men.’ While he never relaxed his pulpit and pastoral duties, his added literary labors were prodigious, and their fruits exceedingly great.” – M’Clintock & Strong.
