««Lucretia; or, The Children of Night,» was begun simultaneously with «The Caxtons: a Family Picture.» The two fictions were intended as pendants; both serving, amongst other collateral aims and objects, to show the influence of home education, of early circumstance and example, upon after character and conduct. «Lucretia» was completed and published before «The Caxtons.» The moral design of the first was misunderstood and assailed; that of the last was generally acknowledged and approved: the moral design in both was nevertheless precisely the same.»
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