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viii to view, it is the fault, and not any particular person that is pointed at.

Notwithstanding the partiality of you and my friends, I feel much reluctance to publish this volume; and have much doubt as to its merit. Had she who wrote the lines signed "La Mere de Cinq Erifans," and those upon the death of your cousin, Susan Moore, which appear in this collection, been still spared to me, her native taste and judgment would have afforded me great assistance in putting together this little work, and would have enabled me to act with much more confidence than I now can. But whatever be the merit of the offering which I here make to you, receive and look upon it as a token of the affection of your father.

C. C. M.

, 1844.