[figure description] Page iii.[end figure description]

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 is 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.

Constantia, like all the beings made known to us, not by
fancy, but experience, has numerous defects. You will read

[figure description] Page iv.[end figure description]

ily 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 complete. I have
shown 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,* 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.