The hope of such a result might, in some degree, console the writer of "Letters from the Mountains," for the painful circumstance that has elicited their publication. March 18, 1806. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SECOND EDITION. WHEN the Writer of these Letters was impelled to submit them to the public eye, unknown, unpatronized, nameless, without partial review or favourable critic, or any prop visible or invisible, her prospect of succeeding was very faint and dubious. Her only hope, of even partial attention, was founded upon that love of truth, which, for the best moral purposes, is implanted in the human heart; that generous instinct, which lives in the unsophisticated mind, and which feels and acknowledges the language of of nature and native feeling, wherever it is heard. Reality, in short, was the prop on which I leant; and it has not deceived me. Minds rich in every intellectual endowment, whose talents give brilliancy to their virtues, and whose virtues give solidity, value, and effect, to their talents; minds, to which even the worthy and the wise have been accustomed to look up to for light, have shed the lustre of their approbation on the simple sketches of narrative and description, the artless effusions of the heart and imagination, which constitute the whole interest of the following selection. It is for such minds as these to distinguish the durable pencil of truth from the watercolours of fiction; and it is not for their satisfaction, but to carry conviction home to a different and inferior class of readers, that the undeniable proofs of a genuine correspondence are about to appear in a second edition. This edition, drawn forth by the generous encouragement of those whom the public voice has ranked among the worthy and the wise, is not, like the former, attended by the severe, the nameless pangs of of anxious diffidence. Yet, in the present case, how oppressive is gratitude, and how painful is self-denial. With what delight, were it permitted me, or could my voice confer distinction, should I enumerate my patrons; but more especially my patronesses. Cheered by their applause, exalted by their esteem, and essentially benefited by their liberality, it would be a proud triumph indeed, were I at liberty to name those virtuous, elegant, and enlightened females, of whom it is not enough to say, that they do honour to England, as they are indeed an ornament to human nature. If one durst draw forth retiring worth from its chosen privacy, I should be tempted to boast, that the same elegant and amiable mind which captivated Cowper in its epistolary effusions (which he declared to excel any others of the kind he had met with), I should boast, I say, that the same mind had exerted its active beneficence, and poured forth its invaluable kindness for me. But it is best to be silent on a subject where one must needs say too little, or be thought to say too much. Το To my old, beloved, and long tried friends, I have made a separate acknowledgement. Their personal appearance in my behalf may perhaps have the effect of swelling affected contempt into real envy. Yet 'tis rather hard, that they should be reduced to the necessity so humorously described in the fable, where the critics so often contemned the likeness which the painter had drawn, that he was forced, for the vindication of his art, to desire the original to exhibit his countenance through the canvass; this too they declared no likeness, till the man spoke out to the utter confusion of criticisın. May 14, 1807. 1 LETTERS FROM THE MOUNTAINS. I LETTER I. TO MISS EWING, OF GLASGOW*. Obant, April 30, 1773. HAD it not in my power to fulfil my promise at Inverary; however, I have taken the first opportunity of troubling you with the recital of my trifling adventures, if such they may be called. you, I was too much After I parted with engrossed by thinking • Now Mrs. Smith, of Jordan-Hill; the early and faithful Friend of the Author of these Letters. + Oban is now become a large and flourishing village; it is the capital of Lorn, in Argyleshire. VOL. I. B of |