PREFACE. LONG ago, in the first months of her widowhood, these Memorials were begun by my dearest mother, as a Memoir of her husband, and of their common life at Alton. Many old friends of the family then gladly lent their assistance, and came forward with letters and journals which they offered for her use. But in her weak health she was unable to bear the strain of a work so full of conflicting excitements of pleasure and pain, and, after a long effort, she was reluctantly compelled to lay it aside. Many years after, when, upon the death of her sister-inlaw, Mrs. Julius Hare, the last link was broken with another portion of her sacred past, and when the remembrance of all that Hurstmonceaux Rectory had been, seemed likely to perish with the loving circle of those who had shared its joys and sorrows, my mother again took up the pen she had so long laid aside, and wished to continue her work as a Memorial of the Two Brothers, Augustus and Julius Hare, who were the authors of the "Guesses at Truth." But age and infirmity were already pressing upon her, and she soon became unable to do more than arrange the materials in her hands, and add notes for my guidance as to the form and manner in which she wished them to be applied. In the last two years of her life she yielded to my earnest wish, that-in carrying on her work if I survived her-I might make her who had been the sunshine of my own life the central figure in the picture. And she then consented to employ the short interval through which she was still spared to bless us, in writing down or dictating many fragments concerning those with whom her earlier life, was passed, and who had long since joined the unseen “cloud of witnesses." My mother had always tried to make the simple experience of her own quiet life as useful to others as it might be, and many who came to visit her had found in her gentle counsel that help and comfort which many books and much learning had failed to inspire. Her own heart was always so filled with thankfulness for the many mercies and blessings of her long life, so grateful to the Power which had upheld, guided, and comforted her, that she was ever filled with an earnest yearning to lead others to establish themselves on the same Rock; and whenever she felt that the story of God's dealings in her own life could lead others to a simpler faith and more entire trust in Him, she never allowed any self-seeking reticence to interfere with this instrumentality. "If I might only be a bridge upon which |