TO THE READER.
The only excuse for troubling thee with so long a correspondence is, that if it had not been published in this manner, it would not have been published at all. And my excuse for publishing it at all is that, for many reasons—I would not abstain from doing so.
In placing these letters in thy hand, dear reader, I should wish that thy mind might be favourably disposed toward them, or at least, might not be in opposition to the spirit in which these letters were first written. They need it more than anything which I have yet written, because, I cannot conceal it from myself, they suffer from—egotism—the offence of all autobiography. This, whilst it may not offend the sympathetic feelings of a brother or sister, may easily offend the stranger who does not partake in them. Much therefore in the letters which referred to myself, and which was personally agreeable to me, has been omitted in their transcription for the press, but not all, otherwise the ingenuous character of the letters must have been sacrificed, together with the
