A Tale of the Times. BY LADY CATHARINE LONG. "He deemed it incumbent upon every individual, however humble, to offer the ROBERT CARTER, 58 CANAL-STREET. PITTSBURG: 56 MARKET-STREET. то HENRIETTA ANNA, COUNTESS OF CARNARVON. MY DEAR LADY CARNARVON, I DEDICATE this Work to you as a memorial of the friendship and affection which have subsisted between us for so many years, and which time, it is pleasant to feel, not only cements, but gives continually to increase. Your idea is also particularly associated with it in my mind, for you are fully acquainted with the motive, wholly distinct from personal considerations, which originally induced me to think of writing, and you were among the very first to encourage me in the undertaking. I know there are many most excellent people who do not approve of religious sentiments being brought forward through the medium of fiction, and who think that works of that nature are not calculated to produce good effects. But my experience has taught me decidedly the contrary; for not only have they often been instrumental in awakening and exalting spiritual feelings, but in some instances they have been the means, in God's hands, of conveying vital truth to the soul. I am fully aware that my hero is not perfect, nor have I endeavoured to make him so, for perfection is not to be found in man; but I have endeavoured to prove, as far as fiction can prove any thing, that religion has power greatly to overcome the natural faults of disposition, and to strengthen and sustain the soul under the trials and temptations of life. The tale flows on "from grave to gay, from lively to severe, pretty much as real life does to those who, though not of the world, are constrained to live much in it; and I have not thought it necessary, in the least, to lower the tone of innocent cheerfulness, or of natural feeling and affection; on the contrary, I have endeavoured to represent love in its very highest degree, believing that in the very noblest characters it will always hold that place, and also thinking that it gives the love of God a much higher triumph to represent it as capable, which it truly is, of subduing the lofty and vehement feelings of men, than as able merely to control the tame and placid emotions of common-place character. In dedicating my Book to you, I am not afraid of compromising you in any way, for, though we may not always feel the same on religious subjects, yet we both know that the difference lies merely in the depth of tone, and not in the nature of the colouring; and you therefore have not feared allowing yourself to be associated with my wholly untried work, while I do not dread, by any sentiments brought forward in it, bringing a shadow of discredit upon a name so justly dear to me. Believe me ever, My dear Lady Carnarvon, CATHARINE LONG. SPA, June 18, 1844. |