AND LETTERS OF MADAME D'ARBLAY, AUTHOR OF EVELINA, CECILIA, &c. EDITED BY HER NIECE. "THE SPIRIT WALKS OF EVERY DAY DECEASED."-YOUNG. EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. IT has been asserted that if any person, however "unknown to fame," should write a journalizing memoir of his own life, in whiche very thought and feeling should be faithfully pourtrayed, such a narrative could not fail of being curious and interesting. Yet, considering the satisfaction which most people find in speaking of themselves, it is singular how few specimens of such autobiography exist. Perhaps their scarcity may arise from a consciousness of the rare assemblage of qualities necessary to their successful production; for the writer should be endowed with candour that shall prompt him to "extenuate nothing,"honestly setting down his own foibles and mistakes, which are sometimes more mortifying to self-love than graver faults. He should have acumen and penetration, enabling him to unravel his own secret feelings and motives, and to trace each sentiment and action to its source. He should be gifted with "the pen of a ready writer," in order to arrest thoughts and impressions which fade almost as fast as they arise ;-and, what is most rare of all, he should possess, however alloyed |