Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/14

vi, which it had been, and is now, my object to produce; I resumed my original idea of publishing, although upon a more contracted scale than I had before designed.

The book, which now, with much diffidence, I submit to the public judgement, must have many claims on their indulgence; most, in those parts, certainly, where I have hazarded original criticism, or observation. For the rest, authenticity, and impartiality, have been my aim throughout, conceiving those principles to be of more consequence in a work of this kind, than ornamental writing.

I have had communications and assistance from several friends, and have made liberal use of the aid afforded me in Le Dictionnaire des Femmes Célébres: which, however, I had never seen till after the greatest part of my own materials was collected; and, in all such cases, I have, to avoid repetition, marked the articles with the initials F. C. only. To other quotations I have noted the authority more at length. Dec. 1803. .