WeRead
Powered by ReaderPub
A compact miscellany of short essays, anecdotes, prayers, poems, and biographical sketches that collects reflections on grief, maternal love, benevolence, virtue, taste, and historical episodes. The pieces alternate personal memories, moral aphorisms, humorous and touching anecdotes, and brief portraits of public figures, often framed as letters, epitaphs, or short narratives. Recurring themes include the effects of sorrow and joy, domestic affection, charity, the vicissitudes of fortune, and the consolations of faith and art. The tone moves between intimate recollection and light moralizing, presenting varied, self-contained vignettes meant to instruct, console, and amuse.
As I have myself felt the arrows of calumny, I should be inexcusable if I readily believed what is said of others. What I have suffered ought to regulate my conduct with regard to those who may be in like manner traduced. When I have the evidence of my senses that what is said of such a one be true, I must then examine my heart, to see if I cannot discover an excuse for errors that may have been the result of weakness; and in no case ought I to pronounce a decided judgment.