which, addressing themselves to the national pride of the Scottish people, they breathe a spirit at once of patriotism and of that candor which renders patriotism unselfish and liberal. We have no hesitation in attesting our belief that Mrs. Grant's writings have produced a strong and salutary effect upon her countrymen, who not only found recorded in them much of national history and antiquities which would otherwise have been forgotten; but found them combined with the soundest and best lessons of virtue and morality."

NEW YORK, September, 1901.

JAS. GRANT WILSON.

TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE SIR WILLIAM GRANT, Knt.

SIR;

I'

Master of the Rolls

T 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.

If truth both of feeling and narration, which are its only merits, prove a sufficient counterbalance to carelessness, laxity, and incoherence of style, its

prominent faults, I may venture to invite you, when you unbend from the useful and honorable labors to which your valuable time is devoted, to trace this feeble delineation of an excellent though unembellished character; and of the rapid pace with which an infant society has urged on its progress from virtuous simplicity to the dangerous "knowledge of good and evil," from tremulous imbecility to self-sufficient independence.

To be faithful, a delineation must necessarily be minute. Yet if this sketch, with all its imperfections, be honored by your indulgent perusal, such condescension of time and talent must certainly be admired, and may perhaps be imitated by others. I am, Sir, very respectfully,

Your faithful humble servant,
THE AUTHOR.

LONDON, October, 1808.

MEMOIRS

OF

AN AMERICAN LADY

DEAR SIR,

O

Introduction

Το

THERS as well as you have expressed a wish to see a memoir of my earliest and most valuable friend.

To gratify you and them I feel many inducements, and see many objections.

To comply with any wish of yours is one strong inducement.

To please myself with the recollection of past happiness and departed worth is another; and to benefit those into whose hands this imperfect sketch may fall, is a third. For the authentic record of an exemplary life, though delivered in the most unadorned manner, or even degraded by poverty of style, or uncouthness of narration, has an attraction for the uncorrupted mind.

It is the rare lot of some exalted characters, by the united power of virtue and of talents, to soar above their fellow-mortals, and leave a luminous

track behind, on which successive ages gaze with wonder and delight.

But the sweet influence of these benign stars, that now and then enlighten the page of history, is partial and unfrequent.

They to whom the most important parts on the stage of life are allotted, if possessed of abilities undirected by virtue, are too often

"Wise to no purpose, artful to no end,"

that is really good and desirable.

They, again, where virtue is not supported by wisdom, are often, with the best intentions, made subservient to the short-sighted craft of the artful and designing. Hence, though we may be at times dazzled with the blaze of heroic achievement, or contemplate with a purer satisfaction those "awful fathers of mankind," by whom nations were civilized, equitable dominion established, or liberty restored: yet, after all, the crimes and miseries of mankind form such prominent features of the history of every country, that humanity sickens at the retrospect, and misanthropy finds an excuse amidst the laurels of the hero, and the deep-laid schemes of the politician :

"And yet this partial view of things

Is surely not the best." - Burns.

Where shall we seek the antidote to this chilling gloom left on the mind by these bustling intricate scenes, where the best characters, goaded on by