You are anxious to obtain some knowledge of the history
of Constantia Dudley. I am well acquainted with
your motives, and allow that they justify your curiosity. I
am willing, to the utmost of my power, to comply with
your request, and will now dedicate what leisure I have
to the composition of her story.
My narrative will have little of that merit which flows
from unity of design. You are desirous of hearing an authentic,
and not a fictitious tale. It will, therefore, be my
duty to relate events in no artificial or elaborate order,
and without that harmonious congruity and luminous amplification,
which might justly be displayed in a tale flowing
merely from invention. It will be little more than a
biographical sketch, in which the facts are distributed and
amplified, not as a poetical taste would prescribe, but as
the materials afforded me, sometimes abundant and sometimes
scanty, would permit.
Constance, like all the beings made known to us, not by
fancy, but experience, has numerous defects. You will
readily perceive, that her tale is told by her friend, but I
hope you will not discover many or glaring proofs of a disposition
to extenuate her errors or falsify her character.
Ormond will, perhaps, appear to you a contradictory or
unintelligible being. I pretend not to the infallibility of
inspiration. He is not a creature of fancy. It was not
prudent to unfold all the means by which I gained a knowledge
of his actions; but these means, though singularly fortunate
and accurate, could not be unerring and compleat.
I have shewn him to you as he appeared, on different occasions
and at successive periods, to me. This is all that
you will demand from a faithful biographer.
If you were not deeply interested in the fate of my friend,
yet my undertaking will not be useless, inasmuch as it will
introduce you to scenes to which you have been hitherto a
stranger. The modes of life, the influence of public events
upon the character and happiness of individuals in America,
are new to you. The distinctions of birth, the artificial
degrees of esteem or contempt which connect themselves
with different professions and ranks in your native country,[1]
are but little known among us. Society and manners constitute
your favorite study, and I am willing to believe,
that my relation will supply you with knowledge, on these
heads, not to be otherwise obtained. If these details be, in
that respect, unsatisfactory, all that I can add, is, my
counsel to go and examine for yourself.
