Second edition, Achirhed the same year as the fir 2 by Cornelia Holwyd žby 5°° (Bradley) Richards] (See Wright 2027) Cornelia Holroyd Bradley) Richards. ASPIRATION: An Autobiography of Girlhood BY MRS. MANNERS, pseud. "Very early I knew that the only object in life was to grow." "Very vain Margaret Fuller The greatest speed of all these souls of men, With blood for sins, and holy perfectings Mrs. Browning. SECOND EDITION. NEW YORK: SHELDON LAMPORT AND BLAKEMAN, No. 115 NASSAU STREET. 1855. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, BY SHELDON, LAMPORT & CO., In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. Edward . Jenkins, Printer, 11 PREFACE. I HAVE written the following pages with an earnest purpose which it would pain me to have misapprehended; and this result I cannot but fear, because I know that I have but imperfectly developed that purpose in the course of the narrative. It was my hope that I might appeal to all thoughtful singleminded School-girls, by this faithful story of a School-girl's experience; that I might show them the quicksand in their path, the false lights which delude them, and lead them prayerfully to the Satisfying One," whose "holy perfectings for all requirements," can alone meet their needs. The undefined dissatisfaction which creeps into the soul, as it makes advances in all earthly knowledge, and the unconscious reaching out for the Divine Ideal, which marks an earnest nature, is the unwritten history of every thoughtful student. To teach such that not wealth, nor position, nor beauty, nor intellectual elevation, nor friendship, nor love, can dispel this dissatisfaction, is the aim of my book. I have tried to be faithful to the soul, advancing into a culti vated maturity of womanhood. 3596 767 2 (RECAP) E. M. |