SOLD BY SIMPKIN AND MARSHALL, STATIONERS' COURT; MASON, 14, CITY ROAD; ALSO BY J. TOWNE, MELTON MOWBRAY; AND ALL BOOKSELLERS.

1831.

311.

ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL.

PREFACE,

His ob

THE Editor of this little work beseeches for his performance the candour and indulgence of the christian public. Its pretensions to literary merit, he is aware, are of a very humble character, and that blemishes will meet the eye of the critic, which neither his leisure nor his materials, allowed him to remove. He wishes that it should be tested, rather by its religious tendency, than by the rules of taste. ject is not to procure fame for himself, but to rescue from the shades of oblivion, an image of departed virtue; to perpetuate in the earth the moral existence of one, whose piety and general excellence of character, procured for her while living, the affection and esteem of her numerous acquaintance, who embalm her mewith their lasting regrets.

mory

Gifted with no extraordinary powers of intellect, and destined by Providence to move in a narrow and humble sphere of action, her history exhibits much of what may called the monotony of human life, and would be unworthy of notice, except for the admirable piety and truly sainted excellence it portrays. These attributes of the work the Compiler hopes, will, in the judgment of the pious, amply compensate for any defects observable in its style, or in the character of its thoughts; notwithstanding which, he flatters himself the Memoir will be found to contain a vein of good sense and judicious observation, highly creditable to the understanding, as well as to the heart of the deceased.

An apology is due to the public, for the late appearance of the work, from which it will be seen that six years have elapsed since the subject of it left the world. Circumstances which

it is not necessary to name, and which if known, would little interest the reader, occasioned this delay. Indeed the design of publishing a Memoir of the deceased, was more than once abandoned, but resumed in consequence of the urgent solicitations of her friends, who considered it not only a tribute due to her memory, but a debt owing to survivors, who have often listened with more solemnity to the voice issuing from the tomb, than to the accents of living monitors.

Of the utility of Biography in general, the Editor deems it superfluous to treat; he would only observe, that we are furnished with a precedent, of high and indisputable authority, in the sacred volume, chiefly composed, as it is, of biographical sketches of eminent saints, whose virtues have adorned human nature, and