PREFACE.
THE great affection with which my dear Sister has ever been regarded in this country, and the universal feeling of sympathy shown at the time of her death, lead me to hope that the publication of this volume may not be unwelcome, containing as it does extracts from her letters to my Mother, together with a brief record of her married life.
The short Memoir here translated from the German, with which the letters are interwoven, was written, as will be seen at a glance, not as presenting any thing like a complete picture of my Sister’s character and opinions, but merely as a narrative of such of the incidents of her life as were necessary to illustrate and explain the letters themselves.
In these days, when the custom has become general of publishing biographies of all persons of note or distinction, it was thought advisable, in order that a true picture might be given of my Sister, that a short sketch of her life should be prepared by some one who was personally known to her, and who appreciated the many beautiful features of her character. The choice fell upon a clergyman at Darmstadt, Dr. Sell.
It would have been premature and out of place to attempt any thing like a complete picture of a character so many-sided, or of my Sister’s opinions on the affairs of Europe, in which she took the deepest interest, and on which she formed opinions remarkable for breadth and sagacity of view. The domestic side of her nature might alone for the present be freely dealt with; and to help Dr. Sell in delineating this, my Mother selected for his guidance the extracts from my Sister’s letters to her which appear in the present volume. There was no thought at first of making these extracts public, but they were found to be so beautiful, and to be so true an expression of what my Sister really was, that, in compliance with the request of the Grand Duke her husband, they were allowed to be translated and published, so that her subjects might see in them how great reason they had to love her whom they had lost.