childhood to the present
time, I have respectfully listened, while they dealt with me and mine and
the bulk of their fellow-creatures after the manner of their sect. If,
in the interval between his first showing himself in my story and its
publication in a separate volume, anything had occurred to make me
question the justice or expediency of drawing and exhibiting such a
portrait, I should have reconsidered it, with the view of retouching its
sharper features. But its essential truthfulness has been illustrated
every month or two, since my story has been in the course of publication,
by a fresh example from real life, stamped in darker colors than any with
which I should have thought of staining my pages.

There are a great many good clergymen to one bad one, but a writer finds
it hard to keep to the true proportion of good and bad persons in telling
a story. The three or four good ministers I have introduced in this
narrative must stand for many whom I have known and loved, and some of
whom I count to-day among my most valued friends. I hope the best and
wisest of them will like this story and approve it. If they cannot all
do this, I know they will recognize it as having been written with a
right and honest purpose.
BOSTON, 1867.

PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION.

It is a quarter of a century since the foregoing Preface was written, and
that is long enough to allow a story to be forgotten by the public, and
very possibly by the writer of it also. I will not pretend that I have
forgotten all about "The Guardian Angel," but it is long since I have
read it, and many of its characters and incidents are far from being
distinct in my memory. There are, however, a few points which hold their
place among my recollections. The revolt of Myrtle Hazard from the
tyranny of that dogmatic dynasty now breaking up in all directions has
found new illustrations since this tale was written. I need only refer
to two instances of many. The first is from real life. Mr. Robert C.
Adams's work, "Travels in Faith from Tradition to Reason," is the outcome
of the teachings of one of the most intransigeant of our New England
Calvinists, the late Reverend Nehemiah Adams. For an example in
fiction,--fiction which bears all the marks of being copied from real
life,--I will refer to "The Story of an African Farm." The boy's honest,
but terrible outburst, "I hate God," was, I doubt not, more acceptable in
the view of his Maker than t