Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, BY ABEL TOMPKINS, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. Stereotyped by BOSTON. J PREFACE. THANKS are tendered to those friends who so readily furnished letters and facts for the brief Memoir herewith presented to the reader. Our aim has been to say too little, rather than too much; but what we have said, whether it be regarded as too limited or too extended, we have said in all good conscience, regarding it as great a sin to speak dishonestly of the dead as of the living. Our record here is of a pure-hearted and heroic woman;-not heroic because of any wonderful exhibition of female intrepidity, but because of a sustaining and persistent energy, that made the best of life as it came, not refusing to do little in the way of culture, because a great deal could not be done. The truest heroism is that which seldom finds a place in history, and to proclaim which the trumpet of fame is too brazen. It is the heroism of a constant resisting of difficulties which stand in the way of soul-advancement, and that threaten, by their constant encroachments, to put out the fire of effort, and weaken the hope of the heart. We have not written this little Memoir with any other expectation than that a religious lesson will be received, favorable to such an humble and grateful recognition of Divine Benefactions as will prevent a wasting of 590038 |