IT is very probable that the friends, by whose solicitations I was
induced to arrange in the following pages my early recollections,
studied more the amusement I should derive from executing this task,
than any pleasure they could expect from its completion.
The principal object of this work is to record the few incidents, and
the many virtues which diversified and distinguished the life of a most
valued friend. Though no manners could be more simple, no notions more
primitive than those which prevailed among her associates, the stamp of
originality with which they were marked, and the peculiar circumstances
in which they stood, both with regard to my friend, and the infant
society to which they belonged, will, I flatter myself, give an interest
with reflecting minds, even to this desultory narrative; and the
miscellany of description, observation, and detail which it involves.
If truth, both of feeling and narration, which are its only merits,
prove a sufficient counterbalance to carelessness, laxity, and
incoherence of style, its prominent faults, I may venture to invite you,
when you unbend from the useful and honourable labours to which your
valuable time is devoted, to trace this feeble delineation of an
excellent, though unembellished character; and of the rapid pace with
which an infant society has urged on its progress from virtuous
simplicity, to the dangerous “knowledge of good and evil:” from
tremulous imbecility to self-sufficient independence.
To be faithful, a delineation must necessarily be minute. Yet if this
sketch, with all its imperfections, be honoured by your indulgent
perusal, such condescension of time and talent must certainly be
admired, and may, perhaps, be imitated by others.