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.