University of Virginia Library

PREFACE
TO THE SECOND EDITION.

The extremely favorable reception which the
Letters of Mrs. Adams have thus far met with
from the American public, encourages the Editor
to attempt the present republication of them. The
opportunity has been taken to revise the text by
a fresh comparison with the original manuscripts,
and carefully to correct that portion of the work
which was supplied by himself. Objections to
the somewhat unwieldy size of the former volume
have been removed by dividing the matter which
it contained into two. In order to do this, however,
it was found necessary to add a few letters.
These, together with a commentary upon them
in the memoir, originally prepared for the first

edition, and finally excluded from it only because
of the unexpectedly large space which the letters
of earlier date were found to occupy, are now
inserted. In all other respects the two editions
do not differ.