of the Boston Athenæum, the Harvard College Library, and the Worcester Public Library.
In preparing this biography, as Theresa’s own autobiography fills many volumes, and as there have been exhaustive lives of her written by members of very many different monastic orders, there has been surely no dearth of material. But the selecting process has been arduous; and it is hoped that in the mass of waste material consigned to the scrap-basket, nothing of importance has been overlooked. Inmates of monasteries in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries had time to write and time to read much which readers in this busy age of bookmaking would disdainfully reject.
The story of Theresa’s life, told as nearly as is possible in her own words,—this is what our little volume purports to be. If it increase the number of her admirers and make her stand out more clearly as an historic personage, the writer’s purpose will be accomplished.
Concord, N. H.,
September 7, 1889.
