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Online text of The Two Guardians
Charlotte Yonge's own Preface to
The Two Guardians, or Home in this World
IN putting forth another work, the Author is anxious to say a few words
on the design of these stories; not with a view to obviate criticism,
but in hopes of pointing to the moral, which has been thought not sufficiently
evident, perhaps because it has been desired to convey, rather than directly
inculcate it.
Throughout these tales the plan has been to present a picture of ordinary
life, with its small daily events, its pleasures, and its trials, so as
to draw out its capabilities of being turned to the best account. Great
events, such as befall only a few, are thus excluded, and in the hope
of helping to present a clue, by example, to the perplexities of daily
life, the incidents, which render a story exciting, have been sacrificed,
andi the attempt has been to make the interest of the books depend on
character painting.
Each has been written with the wish to illustrate some principle which
may be called the key note. "Abbeychurch" is intended to show
the need of self-control and the evil of conceit in different manifestations,
according to the various characters. "Scenes and Characters"
was meant to exemplify the effects of being guided by mere feeling, set
in contrast with strict adherence to duty. In "Henrietta's Wish"
the opposition is between wilfulness and submission—filial submission
as required in the young people, and that of which it is a commencement
as well as a type, as instanced in Mrs. Frederick Langford. The design
of the "Castle Builders" is to show the instability and dissatisfaction
of mind occasioned by the want of a practical, obedient course of daily
life; with an especial view to the consequences of not seeking strength
and assistance in the appointed means of grace.
And as the very opposite to Emmeline's feeble character,
the heroine of the present story is intended to set forth the manner in
which a Christian may contend with and conquer this world, living in it
but not of it, and rendering it a means of self-renunciation. It is therefore
purposely that the end presents no great event, and leaves Marian unrecompensed
save by the effects her consistent well doing has produced on her companions.
Any other compensation would render her self-sacrifice incomplete, and
make her no longer invisibly above the world.
October 14th, 1852.
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