Transcriber notes:
Fred. is always treated as an abbreviation in this book with a trailing period.
Some quotation marks were left out of the printing. Preserved as printed.
Numerous mispellings. These were retained as printed.
IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
LONDON:
HENRY COLBURN, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.
1827.
J. B. NICHOLS, 25, PARLIAMENT STREET.
Gentle Reader,
An Author who is only making a début, should be particularlycareful not to offend against established rules; otherwise you andI might be spared the plague of a Preface; but as I am heartilydesirous to conciliate your regard, I will not forfeit any portionof your esteem at my onset, by the slightest contempt of Court.I will therefore say a few words in the way of introduction toBlue-stocking Hall, though I may find it difficult to tell you morethan you will easily find out for yourself, if you take the troubleof reading the following Letters, which sufficiently explaintheir own story. They are selected from a correspondence which issupposed to have been spread over a period of four years.
As to my motives (for I observe that most[Pg iv] prefaces talk ofmotives) for publishing the letters which I have been at thepains to collect, they are such as we may in charity supposeto operate upon the mind of a criminal, when by the expiatorytribute of his "last speech and dying words," he endeavours, ina recantation of his own errors, to prevent others from fallinginto similar ones. Besides, we are generally eager to make as manyproselytes as we can to any opinion which we have newly adopted;and as my prejudices upon some subjects were very strong before Ivisited Blue-stocking Hall, I am induced, through abundance of themilk of human kindness, to wish that if my reader entertains anyprejudices against ladies stigmatized as Bas Bleus, as I myselfonce did, he may, like me, become a convert to another and a fairerbelief respecting them.
My Dear Howard,
Dover.
Perhaps you and I are at this moment similarly situated, andsimilarly employed. I am seated at a window which opens on thesea, waiting for a summons to the steam-packet which is to waft meover to Calais—while you are, probably, expecting that which isto convey you to Ireland. When I reach France I shall certainlysend you a bill of health from time to time; but as few things areless satisfactory than letters from the road, I shall reserve[Pg 2]my share in the performance of our parting covenant till I am quietlysettled at Geneva.