Rare Books Cairns BP -M136 CUTTER PREFACE. IN submitting the following pages to the cool unbiassed judgment of the public, the author is aware, that should her work be thought of sufficient importance to obtain any notice, she will have to encounter many objections, and much criticism. Several of the former perhaps she already anticipates, and in the latter she will more readily acquiesce, because some defects have been detected and expunged; and there are others so inter-⚫ woven with the tale itself, that to attempt an amendment of them all, would be to write a new book. At the same time, conscious of having aimed to derive all her arguments from that book which is indeed the only safe rule of life, and sure guide to happiness, she hopes that it may without apprehension be put into the hands of those young and susceptible beings who ask amusement, and whose inexperience yet needs a faithful remembrancer. This office it has been the writer's object to sustain; and, if she has success in engaging the ingenuous mind of youth, to cultivate with increased diligence those social charities, those dear domestic virtues on which the peace of private life so much depends, without which, prosperity is but a cold and comfortless sunshine, and adversity is indeed a dark and cheerless day: If she has succeeded thus far, she is not without her reward. To pursue this delightful hope still farther. Should her feeble efforts be the honored instrument of persuading one of ner readers to study, in a meek and teachable spirit, that sacred volume which fills so distinguished a place in the subsequent pages, she will have to rejoice that she has neither lived nor written in vain. Nor may it be pressing the vain expectations of an author beyond the limits of possibility, if the writer indulges the thought, that whilst the mother listens to the simple tale, primarily intended for the daughter's eye, perhaps she may not disdain to glean some practical hint from the humble legend, framed to recommend the nameless charms of female excellence. |