conveys its own moral to those who are able to receive it.
But as the priceless treasure too frequently hides at the
bottom of a well, it needs some courage to dive for it,
especially as he that does so will be likely to incur more
scorn and obloquy for the mud and water into which he has
ventured to plunge, than thanks for the jewel he procures;
as, in like manner, she who undertakes the cleansing of a
careless bachelor's apartment will be liable to more abuse
for the dust she raises than commendation for the clear-
ance she effects. Let it not be imagined, however, that I
consider myself competent to reform the errors and abuses
of society, but only that I would fain contribute my humble
quota towards so good an aim; and if I can gain the pub-
lic ear at all, I would rather whisper a few wholesome
truths therein than much soft nonsense.

As the story of ' Agnes Grey' was accused of extravagant
over-colouring in those very parts that were carefully copied
from the life, with a most scrupulous avoidance of all
exaggeration, so, in the present work, I find myself cen-
sured for depicting con amore, with 'a morbid love of the
coarse, if not of the brutal,' those scenes which, I will ven-
ture to say, have not been more painful for the most fas-
tidious of my critics to read than they were for me to
describe. I may have gone too far; in which case I shall
be careful not to trouble myself or my readers in the same
way again; but when we have to do with vice and vicious
characters, I maintain it is better to depict them as they
really are than as they would wish to appear. To repre-
sent a bad thing in its least offensive light is, doubtless,
the most agreeable course for a writer of fiction to pursue;
but is it the most honest, or the safest? Is it better to
reveal the snares and pitfalls of life to the young and
thoughtless traveller, or to cover them with branches and
flowers? Oh, reader! if there were less of this delicate

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