"As a Proof of my Sincerity, I shall, in the first place, assure him
[the reader], that for my own Part I never was a Beauty, and am now
very far from being young; (a Confession he will find few of my Sex
ready to make): I shall also acknowledge that I have run through as
many Scenes of Vanity and Folly as the greatest Coquet of them all.--
Dress, Equipage, and Flattery were the Idols of my Heart.--I should
have thought that Day lost, which did not present me with some new
Opportunity of shewing myself.--My Life, for some Years, was a
continued Round of what I then called Pleasure, and my whole Time
engross'd by a Hurry of promiscuous Diversions.--But whatever
Inconveniences such a manner of Conduct has brought upon myself, I
have this Consolation, to think that the Publick may reap some Benefit
from it:--The Company I kept was not, indeed, always so well chosen as
it ought to have been, for the sake of my own Interest or Reputation;
but then it was general, and by Consequence furnished me, not only
with the Knowledge of many Occurrences, which otherwise I had been
ignorant of, but also enabled me ...to see into the most secret
Springs which gave rise to the Actions I had either heard, or been
Witness of--to judge of the various Passions of the Human Mind, and
distinguish those imperceptible Degrees by which they become Masters
of the Heart, and attain the Dominion over Reason....

"With this Experience, added to a Genius tolerably extensive, and an
Education more liberal than is ordinarily allowed to Persons of my
Sex, I flatter'd myself that it might be in my Power to be in some
measure both useful and entertaining to the Publick."

A less favorable glimpse of the authoress and her activities is afforded
by a notice of a questionable publication called "A Letter from H---