out and fully described; or that the prominent personal qualities of
so singular a character can be delineated, for the first time, with
vivid exactness and just expression. Not having presumed to do this, I
have attempted nothing more than a general outline or profile.
Such as I have been able to make the work, I present it to the public.
Whatever may be the reception which it may meet, I shall never think
the moments misspent, which were devoted to the purpose of reviving
the memory of Oglethorpe, and of perpetuating his fame by a more full
recital of his deeds than had been heretofore made.
BOSTON, _July 7th_, 1838.
* * * * *
Since the preceding preface was written, the Reverend Charles Wallace
Howard, who had been commissioned by the Legislature of Georgia to
procure from the public offices in London, a copy of the records of
the Trustees for the settlement of the Province, and of other colonial
documents, has returned, having successfully accomplished the object
of his mission. It may be thought that these are of such importance
that all which I have done must be defective indeed, unless I avail
myself of them; and so, perhaps, it may prove. But my advanced old
age, my feeble state of health, and other circumstances, prevent my
doing so. I console myself, however, with the consideration that as
they consist of particulars relative to the settlement and early
support of Georgia, to which Oglethorpe devoted not quite eleven years
of a life extended to nearly a hundred, they would only contribute
to render more distinct the bright and glorious meridian of his
protracted day,--while I aimed to exhibit its morning promise and its
evening lustre;--endeavoring to give some account of what he was and
did forty-four years before he commenced "the great emprise,"
and where he was and how occupied forty-two years after its
accomplishment.
Moreover, the official records contain, principally, a detail of the
plans and measures which were adopted and pursued by the Trustees
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