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(vi)

as secret as it was kind, by means which he would never reveal; with which, till within these, last few months, I have myself been unacquainted.

With what grateful delight do I cast, now, at the same revered feet where I prostrated that first essay, this, my latest attempt!

Your name I did not dare then pronounce; and myself I believed to be "wrapt up in a mantle of impenetrable obscurity[1]." Little did I foresee the indulgence that would bring me forward! and that my dear father himself, whom, even while, urged by, filial feelings, and yet nameless, I invoked[2], I thought would be foremost to aid, nay, charge me to shun the public eye; that He,

  1. Preface to Evelina.
  2. Inscription of Evelina, "O Author of my being!" &c.