Page:The works of Anna Laetitia Barbauld volume 1.djvu/83

 the indulgence of her correspondents or their representatives,—an indulgence for which she here desires to offer her grateful acknowledgements, that the editor has been enabled to give them to the world. She flatters herself that their publication will not be considered as a trespass either against the living or the dead: some of them, particularly a considerable proportion of those addressed to Dr. Aikin, seemed to claim insertion as biographical records; and those written during her residence in France, in the years 1785 and 1786, appeared no less curious and valuable at the present day for the matter they contain, than entertaining and agreeable from the vivacity with which they are written. But it was impossible not to be influenced also by the desire of thus communicating to those admirers of Mrs. Barbauld's genius who did not enjoy the advantage of her personal acquaintance, a just idea of the pointed and elegant remark,