BE IT REMEMBERED: That on the thirtieth day of December, in the thirty-ninth year of the Independence of the United States of America, LYDIA HUNTLEY, of the said District, hath deposited in this office, the title of a Book, the right whereof she claims as Authoress in the words following, to wit:
"Moral Pieces, in Prose and Verse. By Lydia Huntley."
In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled "An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned."
HENRY W. EDWARDS, Clerk of the District of Connecticut.
A true copy of Record examined and sealed by me,
HENRY W. EDWARDS, Clerk of the District of Connecticut.
ADVERTISEMENT.
A FEW of the productions now brought before the public were intended for the use of a School; but the greater part arose from the impulse of the moment, at intervals of relaxation from such domestic employments, as the circumstances of the writer, and her parents, rendered indispensable. Most of them were written when she was very young, and, with the exception of two or three short pieces, the whole, before she had attained the age of twenty-three years.
INTRODUCTION.
A DAMP and dewy wreath that grew Upon the breast of Spring, A harp whose tones are faint and few, With trembling hand I bring.
The clang of war, the trumpet's roar, May drown the feeble note, And down to Lethe's silent shore, The scattered wreath may float.
But He, who taught the flowers to spring From waste neglected ground, And gave the silent harp a string Of wild and nameless sound;
Commands my spirit not to trust Her happiness with these: A bloom that moulders back to dust, A music soon to cease.
But seek those flowers unstain'd by time, To constant virtue given, And for that harp of tone sublime, Which seraphs wake in Heaven.