SOURCE: Anonymous. “Advertisement.” In Resolves Divine, Moral, and Political, by Owen Felltham, pp. vii-xii. London: Pickering, 1840.

In the following unsigned introduction to a nineteenth-century edition of the Resolves, the critic praises Felltham's work, stressing its value for “improving our understanding, and strengthening our virtue.”

Of the numerous works of sterling merit which, after enjoying a long season of popularity, have sunk into comparative forgetfulness, none is more deserving of revival, or more sure to obtain, eventually, a permanent place in the literature of England, than the Resolves of Owen Felltham.

Though entitled Resolves, because at the conclusion of each article, the author forms some resolution, founded upon his own precepts, the volume consists of two hundred, or a “double century,” of Essays on the most important objects of life, exhibiting a profound knowledge of the human heart, and inculcating, in nervous, and often eloquent language, pure morality, warm...