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OF

A BELOVED FRIEND,

OR A BRIEF SKETCH OF

THE LIFE OF

MARY NAPIER LINCOLNE.

BY

ELIZABETH RITCHIE.

WITH AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY,

BY MRS. HENDERSON.

SECOND EDITION.

LONDON:

JACKSON AND WALFORD,

18, ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD.

MDCCCXXXVIII.

Br 6312.57.10

Dr. S. A. Green.

JOHN CHILDS AND SON, BUNGAY.

PREFACE

TO THE FIRST EDITION.

THE following Memoir of a beloved and departed fiiend, was compiled at the request of her dear parents, who were anxious that her example should be exhibited in a permanent form, to the imitation of the junior branches of their family. No thought was originally entertained of its publication, but since it has been completed, their earnest desire for its extended usefulness has led to its committal to the press.

Wrentham,

Jan. 8th, 1838.

Should any profits arise from the sale of this little work, they will be appropriated to the liquidation of the debt on the Independent chapel, recently erected at Halesworth.

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

THE writer of this Memoir, in soliciting a few introductory remarks from the quarter to which she has applied, has suffered friendship to prevail over that worldly policy, which might have secured to her little volume the accompaniment of some name of note and influence with the public. In return, it may be confidently affirmed, that nothing but a reciprocal sentiment has overcome the many scruples, which, for the sake of advantage to this her first literary production, very powerfully prompted to the refusal of her request. No other plea or apology can be offered for the few preliminary observations which follow.

Biography is almost wholly employed in embalming the memory of statesmen, heroes, philosophers, and men of genius, who claim to be regarded as public benefactors and distinguished ornaments of mankind. Seldom does the hand of pure affection draw from it that homage, which private worth is too modest and retiring to demand for itself, however justly merited. It is doubtless befitting that those who have trodden "the high places of the earth," and whose exploits or discoveries have rendered them eminent in life, should be the subjects of a public record, embodying

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