BookRix

I Believe It Is Difficult For Those Who Publish Their Own Memoirs To
Escape The Imputation Of Vanity; Nor Is This The Only Disadvantage
Under Which They Labour: It Is Also Their Misfortune, That What Is
Uncommon Is Rarely, If Ever, Believed, And What Is Obvious We Are Apt
To Turn From With Disgust, And To Charge The Writer With Impertinence.
People Generally Think Those Memoirs Only Worthy To Be Read Or
Remembered Which Abound In Great Or Striking Events, Those, In Short,
Which In A High Degree Excite Either Admiration Or Pity: All Others
They Consign To Contempt And Oblivion. It Is Therefore, I Confess, Not
A Little Hazardous In A Private And Obscure Individual, And A Stranger
Too, Thus To Solicit The Indulgent Attention Of The Public; Especially
When I Own I Offer Here The History Of Neither A Saint, A Hero, Nor A
Tyrant.