Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by HURD AND HOUGHTON, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE: STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY. PS 1266 •A5 Cop.2 ΤΟ ALICE CARY CLYMER (LITTLE ALICE), WHO, TO THEIR LAST EARTHLY HOUR, GAVE TO HER AUNTS A DAUGHTER'S TENDEREST LOVE AND DEVOTION, THIS MEMORIAL OF THEIR LIVES Es Affectionately Dedicated, BY HER FRIEND AND THEIRS, MARY CLEMMER AMES PREFACE. WHEN, at the request of the brothers of Alice and Phoebe Cary, I sat down to write a Memorial of their lives, and, looking through the entire mass of their papers, found not a single word of their own referring in any personal way to themselves, every impulse of my heart impelled me to relinquish the task. To tell the story of any human life, even in its outward incidents, wisely and justly, is not an easy thing to do. But to attempt a fit memorial of two women whose ives must be chiefly interpreted by inward rather than butward events, and solely from personal knowledge and remembrance, was a responsibility that I was unwilling to assume. With the utter absence of any data of their own, it seemed to me that the lives of the Cary sisters could only be produced from the combined reminiscences of all their more intimate personal friends. Months were consumed in writing to, and in waiting for replies from, long-time friends of the sisters. All were willing, but alas! they "had destroyed all letters," had forgotten "lots and lots of things that would have been interesting;" they were preoccupied, or sick; and, after months of waiting, |