University of Virginia Library

PREFACE.

DURING the passage of this story through
The Christian Union, it has been repeatedly
taken for granted by the public press
that certain of the characters are designed as portraits
of really existing individuals.

They are not. The supposition has its rise in an
imperfect consideration of the principles of dramatic
composition. The novel-writer does not profess to
paint portraits of any individual men and women in his
personal acquaintance. Certain characters are required
for the purposes of his story. He conceives and creates
them, and they become to him real living beings,
acting and speaking in ways of their own. But
on the other hand, he is guided in this creation by
his knowledge and experience of men and women, and
studies individual instances and incidents only to assure
himself of the possibility and probability of the
character he creates. If he succeeds in making the
character real and natural, people often are led to
identify it with some individual of their acquaintance.
A slight incident, an anecdote, a paragraph in a paper,
often furnishes the foundation of such a character;
and the work of drawing it is like the process by
which Professor Agassiz from one bone reconstructs
the whole form of an unknown fish. But to apply to

any single living person such delineation is a mistake,
and might be a great wrong both to the author and to
the person designated.

For instance, it being the author's purpose to
show the embarrassment of the young champion of
progressive principles, in meeting the excesses of
modern reformers, it came in her way to paint the
picture of the modern emancipated young woman of
advanced ideas and free behavior. And this character
has been mistaken for the portrait of an individual,
drawn from actual observation. On the contrary,
it was not the author's intention to draw
an individual, but simply to show the type of a
class. Facts as to conduct and behavior similar to
those she has described are unhappily too familiar
to residents of New York. But in this as in other
cases the author has simply used isolated facts in
the construction of a dramatic character suited to
the design of the story. If the readers of to-day
will turn back to Miss Edgeworth's Belinda, they
will find that this style of manners, these assumptions
and mode of asserting them, are no new things. In
the character of Harriet Freke, Miss Edgeworth
vividly portrays the manners and sentiments of the
modern emancipated women of our times, who think
themselves

Certainly the author knows no original fully answering
to the character of Mrs. Cerulean, though
she has heard such an one described; and, doubtless,

there are traits in her equally attributable to all fair
enthusiasts who mistake the influence of their own
personal charms and fascinations over the other sex,
for real superiority of intellect.

There are happily several young women whose vigorous
self-sustaining career, in opening paths of usefulness
alike for themselves and others, are like that
of Ida Van Arsdel; and the true experiences of a
lovely New York girl first suggested the character
of Eva; yet both of them are, in execution, strictly
imaginary paintings, adapted to the story. In short,
some real character, or, in many cases, some two or
three, furnish the germs, but the germs only, out of
which new characters are developed.

In close: The author wishes to dedicate this Story
to the many dear, bright young girls whom she is so
happy as to number among her choicest friends. No
matter what the critics say of it, if they like it; and
she hopes from them, at least, a favorable judgment.