V. THE LAST OF CHICKSANDS. February and March 1654

VI. VISITING. Summer 1654

VII. THE END OF THE THIRD VOLUME

APPENDIX--LADY TEMPLE




CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION


"An editor," says Dr. Johnson, is "he that revises or prepares any work
for publication;" and this definition of an editor's duty seems wholly
right and satisfactory. But now that the revision of these letters is
apparently complete, the reader has some right to expect a formal
introduction to a lady whose name he has, in all probability, never
heard; and one may not be overstepping the modest and Johnsonian limits
of an editor's office, when the writing of a short introduction is
included among the duties of preparation.

Dorothy Osborne was the wife of the famous Sir William Temple, and
apology for her biography will be found in her own letters, here for the
first time published. Some of them have indeed been printed in a _Life
of Sir William Temple_ by the Right Honourable Thomas Peregrine