PREFACE

TO THE REVISED EDITION.

A CAREFUL revision of this work, aided by the suggestions of kind and discriminating friends, has brought to light a number of defects, which have been corrected in the present edition. Passing by some minor emendations, which are not worth noticing, it may be proper in this place to call the attention of the critical reader to a few words on page 210, which the author has inserted, thinking them sufficient to remove the objections, so far as she deems them just, which have been made to her recommending to married persons the practice of opening each other's letters. It will be seen that the clause which has been added, does not imply a compromise, or modification of the principle of perfect mutual unreserve between husband and wife, but simply recognizes a just regard to the rights of others, which the rule, as it was originally laid down, did not exclude. But the fact that the omission of such an explanatory clause has led to a partiak

misapprehension of the principle itself, seemed a sufficient reason for its insertion.

As for the wart on Aunt Hetty's nose,' and some inexcusable mistakes imputed to nature, in the mixture of tints and adjustment of features, which appear in the face and figure of the housekeeper,' the author could not, in justice to the object she had in view, accede to the alterations suggested by the classical refinement of some friends of the work. We would remind them of the well-known story of the South American parrot being deprived of the sunny freedom of his tropic home, to become the well-fed pensioner of an English cage, where he was languishing and pining a long time without uttering a sound, till, suddenly addressed by a stranger in the sonorous Spanish tongue, he woke from his torpor, and, as in an ecstasy, spreading all his plumage, died in the effort to imitate the never-forgotten accents of his native land. · In the chilly atmosphere of poverty and degrading dependence, how many souls are there languishing and pining, robbed of their innate 'glory and strength, numbering their days in cheerless captivity of spirit, without ever hearing the home voices of freedom and friendship, till the heavenly messenger with the inverted torch bids the hapless exile return to his native land! And how many men, benevolent in their way, but in whom benevolence has not done her perfect work, having quickened the hand

without opening the eye, are passing by those 'spirits in prison,' as though they were empty cells, or as if their inmates were born to remain in a chrysalis state, without ever expanding the cramped wings of the inborn Psyche! Under these circumstances it is the noblest task of one who undertakes to teach solid truth by airy fiction, to exhibit characters in whom the divine image is covered over by mean integuments, and by the still more complete disguise of a ridiculous appearance.

These remarks may account for what appears a mere idiosyncrasy of taste; and they may serve, moreover, as Prolegomena, that is, a key, or learned introduction, to the profound philosophy that is bound up in the wart on aunt Hetty's nose,' and the hidden charms of the bilious parrot.'

The author hopes that the hearty welcome with which her child has been received on its first introduction to society, while it gratifies the maternal vanity, will quicken the parental heart to higher efforts, though in a more obscure, and on that account more congenial sphere of duty. Concerning the private history of the young aspirant to favor, there is, in the tale which she herself tells, no plot or mystery to set off her modest pretensions. It may be mentioned, however, that she passed a strict novitiate of two years in the obscurity of a drawer; after which, the question

viii PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION.

whether she should come forth, or be doomed to take the veil of perpetual retirement from the world, was decided by the bolder judgment of some of her nearest relations.

With regard to defects in the book, the author can only say, that she is sensible there must be many that have not been noticed and corrected. All she has to plead in self-vindication is, that she has done what she could.' With this con

viction, she could not, with a clear conscience, attempt to propitiate public opinion, in the way of a certain obscure poet, in a German town, who, on presenting the burgomaster on his birthday with an humble congratulation in rhyme, received the praises that were graciously bestowed on his poetic offering with the modest reply, "O your High-mightiness, if I had taken pains, I could have written a much better poem."

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