work which professed to treat of the prose literature of the country. They have the graces of style and thought which would commend them to the favourable consideration of the general reader, with superadded charms that make them the delight of children. During the composition of these juvenile works, she continued her occupation of catering for “children of a larger growth,” and gave to the world, in 1846, a work of fiction, entitled “My Wife,” a tale of fashionable life of the present day, conveying, under the garb of an agreeable story, wholesome counsels for the young of both sexes on the all-engrossing subject of marriage.
A love for the fine arts has been with Mrs. Tuthill one of the ruling passions of her life. At different times, ample means have been within her reach for the cultivation of this class of studies. Partly for her own amusement, and partly for the instruction of her children, she paid special attention to the study of Architecture in its aesthetical character, enjoying, while thus engaged, the free use of the princely library of Ithiel Town, the architect. The result of these studies was the publication, in 1848, of a splendid octavo volume on the “History of Architecture,” from which an extract is given. She edited, during the same year, a very elegant octavo annual, “The Mirror of Life,” in which several of the contributions were by herself.
“The Nursery Book” appeared in 1849. It is not a collection of nursery rhymes for children, as the title has led many to suppose, but a collection of counsels for young mothers respecting the duties of the nursery. These counsels are conveyed under the fiction of an imaginary correspondence between a young mother, just beginning to dress her first baby, and an experienced aunt. There are few topics in the whole history of the management and the mismanagement of a child, during the first and most important stages of its existence, that are not discussed, with alternate reason and ridicule, in this clever volume.
Mrs. Tuthill is at present engaged upon a series of works, of an unambitious but very useful character, grouped together under the general title of “Success in Life.” They are six volumes, 18mo.’s, of about 200 pages each, and each illustrating the method of success in some particular walk in life, by numerous biographical examples. The titles of the several volumes are: “The Merchant,” 1849; “The Lawyer,” 1850; “The Mechanic,” 1850; “The Artist,” “The Farmer,” and “The Physician,” not yet published.
Mrs. Tuthill removed to Hartford in 1839, to be with her son, then studying law with Governor Ellsworth; in 1843, to Roxbury, near Boston, Massachusetts; in 1847, to Philadelphia; and at present, 1851, is established at Princeton, New Jersey.
