Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

THE

WORKS

OF

HANNAH MORE.

VOL. IV.

CONTAINING

HINTS TOWARDS FORMING THE CHARACTER OF A

YOUNG PRINCESS.

TABLIC

WITH NOTES.

LONDON:

H. FISHER, R. FISHER, AND P. JACKSON.

1834.

ΤΟ

THE RIGHT REVEREND

THE LORD BISHOP OF EXETER.*

MY LORD,

COULD it have been foreseen by the Author of the following
pages, that, in the case of the illustrious Person who is the
subject of them, the standard of education would have been
set so high; and especially, that this education would be
committed to such able and distinguished hands, the work
might surely have been spared. But as the second volume
was gone to the press before that appointment was announced,
which must give general satisfaction, it becomes important
to request, that if the advice suggested in any part of the
work should appear presumptuous, your Lordship, and still
more the public, who might be more forward than your Lord-
ship in charging the Author with presumption, will have the
candour to recollect, that it was offered, not to the learned
Bishop of Exeter, but to an unknown, and even to an ima-
ginary preceptor.

Under these circumstances, your Lordship will perhaps
have the goodness to accept the Dedication of these slight
volumes, not as arrogantly pointing out duties to the dis-
charge of which you are so competent, but as a mark of the
respect and esteem with which I have the honour to be,

MY LORD,

Your Lordship's most obedient

and most faithful servant,

April 2d, 1805.

THE AUTHOR.

* Dr. John Fisher, successively Bishop of Exeter and Salisbury.

PREFACE.

If any book, written with an upright and disinterested intention, may be thought to require an apology, it is surely the slight work which is now, with the most respectful deference, submitted, not to the public only, but especially to those who may be more immediately interested in the important object which it has in view.

If we were to inquire what is, even at the present critical period, one of the most momentous concerns which can engage the attention of an Englishman, who feels for his country like a patriot, and for his posterity like a father; what is that object, of which the importance is not bounded by the shores of the British islands, nor limited by our colonial possessions ;—with which, in its consequences, the interests, not only of all Europe, but of the whole civilized world, may hereafter be in some measure implicated;—what Briton would hesitate to reply, the education of the Princess Charlotte of Wales?

After this frank confession of the unspeakable importance of the subject in view, it is no wonder if the extreme difficulty, as well as delicacy, of the present undertaking, is acknowledged to be sensibly felt by the author.

ness,

It will too probably be thought to imply not only officiousbut presumption, that a private individual should thus hazard the obtrusion of unsolicited observations on the proper mode of forming the character of an English princess. It may seem to involve an appearance of unwarrantable distrust, by implying an apprehension of some deficiency in the plan about to be adopted by those, whoever they may be, on whom this great trust may be devolved; and to indicate self-conceit, by conveying an intimation, after so strong an avowal of the delicacy and difficulty of the task, that such a deficiency is within the powers of the author to supply.

That author, however, earnestly desires, as far as it may be possible, to obviate these anticipated charges, by alleging, that, under this free constitution, in which every topic of national

« AnteriorContinuar »