Every writer who advances principles, whether true or false, that have a tendency to set the mind in motion, does good. Innumerable mistakes have been made, both moral and philosophical:--while covered with a sacred and mysterious veil, how are they to be detected? From various combinations and multiplied experiments, truth, only, can result. Free thinking, and free speaking, are the virtue and the characteristics of a rational being:--there can be no argument which mitigates against them in one instance, but what equally mitigates against them in all; every principle must be doubted, before it will be examined and proved. It has commonly been the business of fiction to pourtray characters, not as they really exist, but, as, we are told, they ought to be--a sort of _ideal perfection_, in which nature and passion are melted away, and jarring attributes wonderfully combined. In delineating the character of Emma Courtney, I had not in view these fantastic models: I meant to represent her, as a human being, loving virtue while enslaved by passion, liable to the mistakes and weaknesses of our fragile nature.--Let those readers, who feel inclined to judge with severity the extravagance and eccentricity of her conduct, look into their own hearts; and should they there find no record, traced by an accusing spirit, to soften the asperity of their censures--yet, let them bear in mind, that the errors of my heroine were the offspring of sensibility; and that the result of her hazardous experiment is calculated to operate as a _warning_, rather than as an example.--The philosopher--who is not ignorant, that light and shade are more powerfully contrasted in minds rising above the common level; that, as rank weeks take strong root in a fertile soil, vigorous powers not unfrequently produce fatal mistakes and pernicious exertions; that character is the produce of a lively and constant affection--may, possibly, discover in these Memoirs traces of reflection, and of some attention to the phænomena of the human mind. Whether the incidents, or the characters, are copied from life, is of little importance--The only question is, if the _circumstances_, and situations, are altogether improbable? If not--whether the consequences _might_ not have followed from the circumstances?--This is a grand question, applicable to all the purposes of education, morals, and legislation--_and on this I rest my moral_--'Do men gather figs of thorns, or grapes of thistles?' asked a moralist and a reformer.