from her own convictions, and that even to the acquittal of those,
because revered characters, whom no one else would acquit, and to
whose much greater faults her errors were owing, and not to a
weak or reproachable heart. As far as it is consistent with human
frailty, and as far as she could be perfect, considering the people
she had to deal with, and those with whom she was inseparably
connected, she is perfect. To have been impeccable, must have left
nothing for the Divine Grace and a purified state to do, and carried our
idea of her from woman to angel. As such is she often esteemed by
the man whose heart was so corrupt that he could hardly believe
human nature capable of the purity, which, on every trial or
temptation, shone out in her's [sic].

Besides the four principal person, several others are introduced,
whose letters are characteristic: and it is presumed that there will
be found in some of them, but more especially in those of the chief
character among the men, and the second character among the women,
such strokes of gayety, fancy, and humour, as will entertain and divert,
and at the same time both warn and instruct.

All the letters are written while the hearts of the writers must be
supposed to be wholly engaged in their subjects (the events at the
time generally dubious): so that they abound not only in critical
situations, but with what may be called instantaneous descriptions and
reflections (proper to be brought home to the breast of the youthful
reader;) as also with affecting conversations; many of them written in
the dialogue or dramatic way.

'Much more lively and affecting,' says one of the principal character,
'must be the style of those who write in the height of a present