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[Illustration: Eliza Wharton]
THECOQUETTE;OR,THE HISTORY OFELIZA WHARTON.
A NOVEL:FOUNDED ON FACT.
BYA LADY OF MASSACHUSETTS.
HISTORICAL PREFACE,INCLUDINGA MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.
He who waits beside the folded gates of mystery, over which foreverfloat the impurpled vapors of the PAST, should stand with girded loins,and white, unshodden feet. So he who attempts to lift the veil thatseparates the REAL from the IDEAL, or to remove the heavy curtain thatfor a century may have concealed from view the actual personages of awell-drawn popular fiction, or what may have been received as such,should bring to his task a tender heart and a delicate and gentle hand.
Thus, in preparing an introductory chapter for these pages which are tofollow, many and various thoughts suggest themselves, and it isnecessary to recognize and pursue them with gentleness and caution.
The romance of "Eliza Wharton" appeared in print not many yearssubsequent to the assumed transactions it so faithfully attempts torecord. Written as it was by one highly educated for the times,—thepopular wife of a popular clergyman, connected in no distant degree, bymarriage, with the family of the heroine, and one who by the veryprofession and position of her husband was, as by necessity, broughtinto the sphere of actual intercourse with the principal characters ofthe novel, and as the book also took precedence in time of all Americanromances, when, too, the literature of the day was any thing but"light"—it is not surprising that it thus took precedence in interestas well of all American novels, at least throughout New England, and wasfound, in every cottage within its borders, beside the family Bible, andthough pitifully, yet almost as carefully treasured.
Since that time it has run through a score of editions, at longintervals out of print, and again revived at the public call with aneagerness of distribution which few modern romances have enjoyed. Itsauthor, Hannah Foster, was the daughter of Grant Webster, a well-knownmerchant of Boston, and wife of Rev. John Foster, of Brighton,Massachusetts, whose pedigree, but few removes backward in the line ofher husband,[A] interlinked, as has been already hinted, with that ofthe "Coquette." Thus did they hold towards each other that verysignificant relationship—especially in the past century—of "cousins"a relationship better heeded and more earnestly recognized andcherished than that of nearer kin at the present day. Therefore, notonly by family ties, but by similarity of positions and community ofinterests, was she brought into immediate acquaintance with thecircumstances herein combined, and especially qualified to write thehistory with power and effect. Nor is this the only work which bears theimpress of her gifted pen. There is still another extant, of which Ineed not at this time and place make mention, besides many valuableliterary contributions to the scattered periodicals of that day. It isto be regretted here that a short time previous to her death shedestroyed the whole of her manuscripts, which might, in many respects,have been particularly valuable.
She has, however, transmitted her genius and her powers, which findexpression and appreciation in two daughters still living in Montreal,Canada East, one of whom is the gifted author of "Peep at the Pilgrims,""Sketches from the Life