If the author had
lived to complete her work, it is probable that these personages might
have grown into as mature an individuality of character, and have taken
as permanent a place amongst our familiar acquaintance, as Mr. Bennet, or
John Thorp, Mary Musgrove, or Aunt Norris herself.
CHAPTER XIV.
_Postscript_.
When first I was asked to put together a memoir of my aunt, I saw reasons
for declining the attempt. It was not only that, having passed the three
score years and ten usually allotted to man's strength, and being
unaccustomed to write for publication, I might well distrust my ability
to complete the work, but that I also knew the extreme scantiness of the
materials out of which it must be constructed. The grave closed over my
aunt fifty-two years ago; and during that long period no idea of writing
her life had been entertained by any of her family. Her nearest
relatives, far from making provision for such a purpose, had actually
destroyed many of the letters and papers by which it might have been
facilitated. They were influenced, I believe, partly by an extreme
dislike to publishing private details, and partly by never having assumed
that the world would take so strong and abiding an interest in her works
as to claim her name as public property.
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