In presenting the following pages to the Public, I conceive it to be
incumbent on me to say, that Miss Cowley’s letters to her friend will be
found to contain nearly the whole of a narrative, from which, I trust,
my readers may draw a lesson of morality, as well as of gratification to
that curiosity which a _new Novel_ often excites, but sometimes
disappoints. My claims to candour are consequently few; for as the
Editor, rather than the Author, I beg leave to observe, that with the
materials before me, I have balanced, pretty equally as I think, my
hopes of my readers’ favour, with my fears of their frowns; and I stand
chargeable with no more than an error in judgment, or too much
partiality for Miss Cowley’s talents, in having preferred her pen to my
own.
It is, however, indispensably necessary, that I should prepare the way
for her appearance as a candidate for public notice; and with as much of
brevity as of fidelity, do I intend to make my first chapter useful to
this purpose, by detailing such particulars of her family, birth, and
circumstances of fortune, as are requisite for the better knowledge and
illustration of those occurrences which engaged her time and attention,
and furnished the principal subjects for her pen.