ABBEYCHURCH;

OR

SELF-CONTROL AND SELF-CONCEIT,

BY

CHARLOTTE M. YONGE

THE AUTHOR OF THE HEIR OF REDCLYFFE.

Second Edition

The Original Printed Text of this work is in the possession of
TheCharlotte M Yonge Fellowship.

'Never think yourself safe because you do your duty in ninety-ninepoints; it is the hundredth which is to be the ground of yourself-denial, which must evidence, or rather instance and realize, yourfaith.'

Newman's Sermons

PREFACE.

Rechauffes are proverbially dangerous, but everyone runs into themsooner or later, and the world has done me the kindness so often toinquire after my first crude attempt, that after it has lain for manyyears 'out of print,' I have ventured to launch it oncemore—imperfections and all—though it is guilty of the error ofpointing rather to a transient phase of difficulty than to a generalprinciple. The wheels of this world go so quickly round, that I havelived to see that it would have been wiser in the clergyman to havedirected rather than obstructed the so-called 'march of intellect.' Ihave lived also to be somewhat ashamed of the exuberant outpouring ofhistorical allusions, which, however, were perfectly natural among theset of girls from whom my experience was taken: but these defects, aswell as the more serious one of tyrannical aversion to vulgarity, aretoo inherent in this tale to be removed, and the real lesson intendedto be conveyed, of obedience and sincerity, of course remains unchanged.

The later story was a rather hasty attempt to parody the modernsensation novel, as Northanger Abbey did the Radclyffe school, but itmakes the mistake of having too real a mystery. However, such as theyare, the two stories go forth in company, trusting that they may notprove too utterly wearisome to be brought forward this second time.

May 9th, 1872.