The Project Gutenberg EBook of Withered Leaves from Memory's Garland
by Abigail Stanley Hanna

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Title: Withered Leaves from Memory's Garland

Author: Abigail Stanley Hanna

Release Date: March 15, 2004 [EBook #11599]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Withered Leaves from Memory's Garland

By Abigail Stanley Hanna.

"There comes a voice that awakes my soul;
It is the voice of years that are gone,--
They roll before me with all their deeds."

1857.

Preface

These pages were not written for public inspection; but to beguile the
weary hours of indisposition, and present a record of thoughts and
sentiments to the eyes of my children, after my lips are sealed in
death.

By the recommendation of friends, I have decided to submit them to the
public.

From a criticising public I should shrink; but to a sympathizing
public I would appeal, trusting the holy mantle of charity will be
flung over my errors, and my motives appreciated.

I would take this opportunity to tender my hearty and sincere thanks
to my patrons, who have aided me in this enterprise, not only by their
subscriptions, but by their words of sympathy and encouragement, which
have fallen like sunshine upon my gloomy pathway, warming my desolate
heart, and leaving a sweet fragrance upon the memory, which shall live
on and on, through the long ages of eternity; for beautifully and
emphatically has Mrs. Childs said,

"Goodness and beauty live forever,"

Perhaps I should apologise for the pensive strain in which I have
written, but it has been in shady places, when the body was suffering
from disease, and I felt almost too weak to breathe. Dear reader, did
you ever feel that you were dying? that there was but a step between
you and death? How natural, at such a time, and in such a place, to
contemplate the circumstances connected with the deaths of dear,
departed friends.

Hoping this may lead some thoughtless one to reflection, I submit it
to the investigation of a generous public.

But if I fail in this, shall I have written in vain? O, no; it i