I Accede with great pleasure to the request of Mr. Morris that I should be associated with him in this book, which describes the journey which we took together, and conveys the conclusions on matters of supreme importance which concurrently we reached.

There is room for a variety of works describing other lands and other peoples. The works of those long resident in foreign lands who have made a calm and complete study of all they have seen, carry of necessity the highest authority, and are charged with elements of deeper interest. But it is obvious that part of what is gained in force is lost in freshness. By the time they write, they are so accustomed to the usages of the people that they have ceased to feel, and cannot therefore communicate, an interest in what at first struck them as so peculiar. The first impression has its own judicial value. There is, therefore, room for the work of those who write what they see, when they see it, with all the freshness of their own surprise.

Such is the special quality of the letters which are here presented to the reader. They interested a very large circle of readers from time to time during our journey, and they will, I doubt not, extend and deepen that interest; for they deal with varied themes, some of them the most interesting that the devout Christian can ponder.