Letters of Lydia Maria Child, with a biographical introduction by John G. Whittier and an appendix by Wendell Phillips.

-Xxiv INTRODUCTI N1V.
The letters in this collection constitute but a small
part of her large correspondence. They have been
gathered up and arranged by the hands of dear relatives and friends as a fitting memorial of one who
wrote from the heart as well as the head, and who
held her literary reputation subordinamt.e always to
her philanthropic aim to lessen the sum of human
suffering, and to make the world better for her living.
If they sometimes show the heat and impatience of a:zealous reformer, they may well be pardoned in consideration of the circumstances under Wvhich they were,written, and of the natural indiganation of a generous nature in view of wrong and oppression. If she
touched with no very reverent handl the g'arment
hemn of dogmas, and held to the spirit of Scripture
rather than its letter, it must be remembered that slhe
lived in a time when the Bible was cited iundefense
of slavery, as it is now in Utah in support of poly:g'amy; and she may well be excused for some degree
of impatience with those who, in the tithing of imint
and anise and curmmin, neglected the weightier matters of the law of justice and mercy.
Of the men an-d women directly associated with
the beloved subject of this sketch, but few are no1w
left to recall her single-hearted devotion to apprehended duty, her unselfish generosity, her love of all
beauty and harmony, and her trustful reverence, free,
from pretence and cant. It is not unlikely that the
surviving shalers of her love and friendship nay feel
the inadequateness of this brief memovial, for I close:
She took us all; and wheresoe'er she went.
Blessings, aud Faith and Beauty, followed there,
E'en to the end, where she lav down content:
And with the gold light of a life more fair,
Twin bows of promise o'er her grave were blent."'