John Ploughman's Talks [antikvár]

PREFACE IN "John Ploughman's Talk" I have written for ploughmen and common people. Hence refined taste and dainty words have been discarded for strong proverbial expressions and homely phrases. I have aimed my blows at the vices of the many, and tried to inculcate those moral virtues without which men are degraded. Much that needs to be said to the toiling masses would not well suit the pulpit and the Sabbath; these lowly pages may teach thrift and industry all the days of the week, in the cottage and the workshop; and if some learn these lessons I shall not repent the adoption of a rustic style. Ploughman is a name I may justly claim. Every minister has put his hand to the plough; and it is his business to break up the fallow ground. That I have written in a semi-humorous vein needs no apology, since thereby sound moral teaching has gained a hearing from at least 300,000 persons. There is no particular virtue in being seriously unreadable. A pickle jar has these words upon it: "If you like our pickles, try our sauce," and so I would add, if you like "John Ploughman's Talk," try his "Pictures," which is a second volume of the same character as the present. C. H. SPURGEON.