Excerpt from Death-Bed Scenes, and Pastoral Conversations, Vol. 3 of 3
Of the three stories, which this third volume con tains, the second was written concurrently with the action of the piece. We know the fact by the per sonal concern which we ourselves had in the events that are recorded; but in all the cases in which it happened, we know it by the internal evidence of the manuscripts. When a piece was composed after the whole action was terminated, the Author de scribed his characters, in each particular passage, as they appeared to him upon the general view, without any sub sequent alteration; but when he wrote con currently, he described them as they appeared to him at the moment, in different lights on different occa sions; and he was compelled, in consequence, in order to avoid seeming contradictions and incon sistencies, when his opinions of the several characters had undergone a change, to insert numerous cor rections and qualifications of the previous history. All such alterations in the original manuscripts (no copy having ever been taken) attest the fact of the concurrent writing.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.