I wish to see the youth of my country come forward upon the stage of life, models of excellence, with characters formed for the times in which they are to act. How much influence my book may have, in securing such a result, I cannot tell; but my design in writing it has been, to contribute something toward forming the character of some of those who are to be our future electors, legislators, governors, judges, ministers, lawyers, and physicians—after the best biblical model. And, from the kind reception of my former attempts to benefit American youth, I trust they will give a candid hearing to the few hints contained in the following pages. It is intended for young gentlemen—in early youth, from eight or ten to fifteen or sixteen years of age. It covers substantially the same ground occupied by a work for girls issued simultaneously with it; and some of the chapters are identical in the two books, while others are entirely different, and some partially so. It is the hope of the Author, that everyone who reads it, will strive to be a Christian man, in the highest sense of the term.
Harvey Newcomb (September 2, 1803 – August 30, 1863) was an American clergyman and writer.
He was born in Thetford, Vermont. He removed to western New York in 1818, engaged in teaching for eight years, and from 1826 till 1831 edited several journals, of which the last was the Christian Herald.
For the ten following years he was engaged in writing and preparing books for the American Sunday School Union. He was licensed to preach in 1840, took charge of a Congregational church in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, and subsequently held other pastorates.
He was an editor of the Boston Traveller in 1849, and in 1850-1 assistant editor of the New York Observer, also preaching in the Park Street mission church of Brooklyn, New York, and in 1859 he became pastor of a church in Hancock, Pennsylvania. He contributed regularly to the Boston Recorder and to the Youth's Companion, and also to religious journals. He wrote 178 volumes, of which fourteen are on church history, the others being chiefly books for children, including Young Lady's Guide (New York, 1839); How to be a Man (Boston, 1846); How to be a Lady (1846); and Cyclopedia of Missions (1854; 4th ed., 1856). He also was the author of Manners and Customs of the North American Indians (2 vols., Pittsburgh, 1835).