LIFE OF MARY ANNE SCHIMMELPENNINCK AUTHOR OF "SELECT MEMOIRS OF PORT ROYAL" AND OTHER WORKS. EDITED BY HER RELATION CHRISTIANA C. HANKIN. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. AUTOBIOGRAPHY. LONDON LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, LONGMANS, AND ROBERTS. ст. 788 533A2 v. I ADDRESS TO THE READER. THE fragment of autobiography which occupies the first volume of this work was dictated by Mrs. Schimmel Penninck during the last three years of her life, when the act of writing was distasteful and burdensome to her. It received neither subsequent addition nor alteration from its Author. She did not live to make those corrections which every such work requires, and the reader's indulgence is claimed for faults of composition arising from these circumstances. In compiling the memoir of Mrs. Schimmel vi ADDRESS TO THE READER. Penninck's life, which occupies the second volume, the utmost pains have been taken to procure materials with a view to continue the detail from the period when the autobiography of her early years concludes. But in this there was only partial success. Of a considerable part of her married life, the Editor has failed in obtaining any record; but from about the year 1835 materials abound. Especially are they rich in letters. So many have been kindly placed at the disposal of the Editor, that the only difficulty has been in the selection. Many of the letters which follow have been chosen as especially exhibiting the character of the writer, and her views on many interesting topics largely discussed in the present day. A new edition of the Memoirs of Port Royal, and some unpublished writings of Mrs. SchimmelPenninck's, are in course of preparation for the press, and will follow the present volumes |