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J. F. R. F.

A Memory.

"There is

One great society alone on earth:

The noble Living and the noble Dead."

WORDSWORTH: Prelude.

SECOND EDITION.

BOSTON:

PRIVATELY PRINTED.

1885.

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IF

F any mistake has been made in publishing this Memory, the living must answer for it. No thought of such a book was ever in the mind of its subject. She would have said, in sincere humility, that her life was not worthy of it; but it can be undoubtingly affirmed that of this, in his or her own case, no person is a proper judge. The responsibility is here assumed by him to whom she devotedly stood in the dearest of earthly relations.

Grief has found solace in its preparation; and imperfect and inadequate as it is, because of the sparseness of contemporaneous history in the form of letters and diaries, the choice lay between it and silence. Without it, indeed, this dear life would survive only in the perishing memories of contemporaries.

Be it remembered, too, that "merit lives from man to man," and that such a life, as far as it shall become known, will be an inspiration to noble living.

Objection may be made, that "the life was not an uncommon one." In an important sense this was true; but in its spirit it was not common; and if this shall fully appear, the publishing will need no other vindication.

And again it may be said, that "great excellence of character is not singular." This, too, is gladly admitted. Those who knew Mrs. Firth will not be among the doubters of human worth; but the frequency of such instances cannot lessen their individual value, nor make such recognition less a duty, or less imperative.

"And what, for this frail world, were all

That mortals do or suffer,

Did no responsive harp, no pen

Memorial tributes offer?"

Profound thanks are returned to every friend who has helped in any way in the preparation of this Memory.

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