SCENES AND CHARACTERS, OR, EIGHTEEN MONTHS AT BEECHCROFT




PREFACE



Of those who are invited to pay a visit to Beechcroft, there are some
who, honestly acknowledging that amusement is their object, will be
content to feel with Lilias, conjecture with Jane, and get into
scrapes with Phyllis, without troubling themselves to extract any
moral from their proceedings; and to these the Mohun family would
only apologise for having led a very humdrum life during the eighteen
months spent in their company.

There may, however, be more unreasonable visitors, who, professing
only to come as parents and guardians, expect entertainment for
themselves, as well as instruction for those who had rather it was
out of sight,--look for antiques in carved cherry-stones,--and
require plot, incident, and catastrophe in a chronicle of small beer.

To these the Mohuns beg respectfully to observe, that they hope their
examples may not be altogether devoid of indirect instruction; and
lest it should be supposed that they lived without object, aim, or
principle, they would observe that the maxim which has influenced the
delineation of the different Scenes and Characters is, that feeling,
unguided and unrestrained, soon becomes mere selfishness; while the
simple endeavour to fulfil each immediate claim of duty may lead to