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PREFACE

TO THE

SECOND EDITION.

I AM unwilling to send forth the Second Edition of my Tribute of Parental Affection to the Memory of my beloved Daughter, without expressing my grateful acknowledgments for the many testimonies I have received of the interest it has excited, and the hopes that are entertained of its becoming useful. Should these anticipations be realized, I shall see at least one sufficient reason for the affecting circumstances of my Daughter's death, and her premature

removal from her afflicted friends. If God be glorified, and our fellow-creatures benefited, whether it be by life, or by death, we have cause to rejoice: and though the heart still bleeds at every recollection of this most amiable and excellent daughter, yet we shall consider it as a high privilege to have trained a child, on whom God has conferred the peculiar honour of educing from her death more abundant fruit, than could have been reasonably expected from a protracted life.

I had some doubts, when I sent th former edition to the press, whether I had not suffered the feelings of the parent too much to blend with the narrative of the daughter; and I have, perhaps, lain myself open to observation for the minute detail of circumstances, which naturally arose from this fulness of heart. But I found it almost

impossible to forego this indulgence of feeling; and I gained some mitigation of sorrow by giving it vent. Nor am I without hope that some advantage even to my readers may result from it. If, as I believe, the Narrative will not be read by any without interest; and if the lessons it is calculated to teach be of prime importance, it may be reasonably hoped that the emotions of the heart may come in aid of the conviction of the mind, and produce a more permanent effect than could be expected from the mere deductions of reason. If it were as easy to make Christians, as it is to convince men that they ought to be such, very few, in this day of light and activity, would continue strangers to the power of religion; but, alas! the passions are too powerful for the understanding; and unless we can bring the affections to

viii PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

co-operate with the mind, it will be still aid,

Video meliora proboque;

Deteriora sequor;

or, in the language of the apostle, we shall complain, "when I would do good, evil is present with me." Should this Memoir, as I trust it will, put the feelings in motion, my earnest prayer is, that the Holy Spirit may give them a right direction.

To the former edition a few other particulars have been added; and the whole is presented in a somewhat improved form of type and letter-press.

CHOBHAM-HOUSE,

Dec. 29, 1823.

PREFACE

TO THE

FOURTH EDITION.

IT has pleased Divine Providence, in his inscrutable wisdom, again to visit us with a sore domestic calamity. Little more than sixteen months have elapsed, since our only and beloved daughter was cut off in the midst of her days, and the hopes of her parents. The tears had not ceased to flow for the loss of this amiable and pious daughter, when my eldest son, also, was summoned to appear in the presence of God, and to join, in a better world, the society of his sister, who had long been his beloved companion and confidential friend. "They were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and they are not divided in their death." But how deeply this stroke has

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