tion; although possessing but slight advantages of education, and owing little to the influence of society, she has sent forth compositions which contain the emanations of a mind rich in endowment, fraught with beautiful and delicate conceptions, embodied in a style of language, the correctness and purity of which, under all these adverse circumstances, is scarcely less remarkable than the thoughts which it contains.
"We do not mean to say that her writings are not in many respects defective. They are so; and they could not be otherwise. But, considering the peculiar situation of their author, they are certainly remarkable productions; and without any allowance for circumstances, if subjected to the rules of rigid criticism, some of them would not suffer by a comparison with the ordinary writings of many who have acquired no slight degree of celebrity.
"The references to her own severe deprivations, which they contain, often bear a touching pathos, which finds its way directly to the heart; but of their affecting power she herself appears to be almost unconcious. There is evidently an absence of all design to enlist the feelings of others by allusions of this nature. Whenever we find them in her writings, they appear to come involuntarily from the depths of her own feelings, and to be mingled with the beautiful imagery of her poetry merely through the unceasing pressure of the physical suffering from which her spirit seeks relief among the creations of her vivid imagination.
"The proposal for publishing a collection of her poems certainly deserves encouragement. We hope it will be carried into effect: for, apart from all personal considerations, their intrinsic value renders them worthy of preservation. It is not to furnish the author with the means of ease and enjoyment, for this is beyond the reach of human power; but it is
