WOMAN'S TRIALS;

OR, TALES AND SKETCHES FROM THE LIFE AROUND US.

BY T. S. ARTHUR.

PHILADELPHIA:

1851.






PREFACE.

THE title of this volume sufficiently indicates its purpose. The
stories of which it is composed have been mainly written with the
end of creating for woman, in the various life-trials through which
she has to pass, sympathy and true consideration, as well in her own
sex as in ours. We are all too much engrossed in what concerns
ourselves--in our own peculiar wants, trials, and sufferings--to
give that thought to others which true humanity should inspire. To
the creator of fictitious histories is, therefore, left the task of
reminding us of our duty, by presenting pictures from the world of
life around us--moving pictures, in which we may not only see the
effect of our actions upon others, but also the relations of others
to society, and thus learn to sympathize with the tried and the
tempted, the suffering and the oppressed, the grief-stricken and the