Obrázky stránek
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors]

DEDICATION.

ΤΟ

MRS. OAKLEY.

To whom can I dedicate the following Letters, but to HER, who, for thirty years and upwards, has been the tender and affectionate Friend of my bosom; one, whose watchful assiduity to my comforts, whose solicitude for my happiness, whose unwearied attention to soothe the rugged brow of care, and whose attachment to her numerous offspring, fostered at her own breast, reared under her own eye, and directed by her in the path of virtue and religion; -to whom, but to HER, the Mother of eleven children, the fond Parent, the faithful Wife, and the exemplary pattern of every domestic virtue, can I address these emanations of my heart, which, in the various incidents of my life, mark the progressive stages of my occupations, my pleasures, and my anxieties?

To HER, then, I offer them, as a tribute of my affectionate love, in the hope that (should

it please the Almighty to take me from her) she will sedulously continue to infuse into the minds of those most dear to us, the principles of truth, honour, and generosity, (the brightest gems that can adorn them), which it has been the anxious study of my life they should imbibe.

The Lithographic Portraits which illustrate this volume, will, as they are my own productions, and as the resemblances are tolerably correct, bring to her recollection the pleasing delights (shaded with some bitter remembrances) they have afforded me, in tracing the features of those in whom my fondest attachment centres.

TO HER then, the Wife of my bosom, I dedicate them.

Tavistock Place, January 1, 1823.

BENJAMIN OAKLEY.

« PředchozíPokračovat »