which breathe strongly of a spirit of humility, dependance and devotion. In almost all of them we see a mind deeply impressed with the value of religion, and vanity of worldly things. The following extract is made as peculiarly striking.

The

"The christian life may be compared to a magnificent column, whose summit always points to heaven. innocent, and therefore real, pleasures of this world are the ornaments on the pedestal; very beautiful, and highly to be enjoyed when the eye is near, but which should not too long or too frequently detain us from that just distance, where we can contemplate the whole column, and where the ornaments on its base disappear."

Although Miss Smith shone pre-eminently as a literary character, yet she appeared most brilliant and endearing when viewed through her exalted piety, and sincere religion. It was this that raised her above the world, and taught her, at sixteen years of age, to resign its riches and its privileges almost without regret, and to support with dignity a very unexpected change of situation. Her goodness was of a very genuine kind. Her religion was watered by the dews and rains of heaven. It taught her seriousness and humility, kindness, resignation, and contentment. It sustained her through the trials of life, and cheered her dying hours!

STAEL.

ANNE LOUISE GERMAIN DE STAEL. This justly celebrated and admired female, so eminent in the annals of French literature, was born at Paris in the year 1766, and displaying what might well be called precocity of

talent, was educated under the immediate inspection of her parents. When a child, she was remarkable for great cheerfulness, vivacity, and frankness. She was a writer long before she had attained the age of fifteen; and when she had arrived at this age, she made extracts from Montesquieú's Spirit of Laws, with remarks. From this period, until her marriage, which took place in her twentieth year, she composed several tragedies and three novels. But her most finished work, appeared soon after her marriage, under the title of "Letters on the writings and character of J. J. Rousseau." In these are deposited the germs of all the opinions that she af terwards developed. Amid all the enthusiasm which Rousseau inspires her, she preserves the independence of her mind, scatters her own thoughts with profusion, and does it with the gracefulness, the slight embarrassment of a young woman, who feels rather afraid of displaying too much vigour. It is in these fragments of ardent sensibility, and particularly in her bursts of admiration and love for her father, that she has poured out her whole heart. In 1796, she published an essay on the "Influence of the Passions on Individual and National Happiness:" and in four years afterwards it was followed by an essay on "Literature, considered in its connexion with Social Institutions." It is apparent

that, during the interval of that period, the current of her thoughts underwent a change, although her opinions remained the same. Her ideas were matured by reflection, a course of study alleviated the pressure of her misfortunes, and her mind resumed its elasticity. Already her life becomes all futurity; and as the present does not answer her wishes, she steers with full sails

towards a distant glory; her necessity of hope is diffused over the world at large. She believes that the human mind enriches itself with the wealth of ages. According to her, generations succeed not each other in vain, and a better order of things is gradually advancing, the principal features of which the prophetic eye of genius can distinguish. The state of commotion and anarchy ceases to appear to her a useless evil, when she considers it as a crisis, that must lead to a happier condition; and more especially when she attributes it to the inevitable resistance, which principles long misunderstood, or laid aside among spéculative truths, experience, when we come to apply them to real life. But it is necessary that an examination of the past should justify this favourable augury. It must be proved that the advance of knowledge has been real, that it has been constant in spite of vicissitudes, and that we can trace the law of the moral improvement of the human race through the obscurity of time. This is what is undertaken by Madame de Stael, and in the execution of which she has displayed a vastness of intellect.

It was towards the end of 1803, after having published, 66 Delphine," ," exiled by Bonaparte, she made her tour into Germany. Here she was received with transport by men of genius, and applauded for her talents. From thence she passed into Italy, where she was also received with the attention due to her rank and splendid acquirements; and on her return to Vienna in 1807, she published "Corinna," the master-piece of all her writings.

During her stay in this capital, she completed and prepared for the press, her great work on the morals,

literature, and philosophy of "Germany;" which, in point of excellence, ranks as high as the preceding, and is perhaps more extraordinary, as the performance of a woman. In 1812, she published a work against "Suicide;" and on her return to France, after an exile of ten years, she revised and prepared for the press her immortal work, entitled "Considerations on the French Revolution," which she published in 1816. From this period until her death, she was engaged in revising the work which has since appeared under the title of "Ten Years' Exile."

In closing this sketch of her life, we must remark, that Madame de Stael was in all the relations of domestic and social life an agreeable companion-a dutiful and devoted daughter, a warm and constant friend, and an affectionate mother. In her manners she had a simplicity and even a carelessness that made every one feel at ease in her company; and in conversation, she was eloquent and brilliant.

In her last illness, her character remained unaltered. To the last moment she was tender, confiding as an infant, and resigned to her fate. She was seen constantly exerting the virtues for which she was distinguished; and on those days when she suffered most pain, she was employed in acts of charity. She preserved so much tranquillity as to wish to dictate to Mr. Schlegel the decription of what she felt. Her confidence in the goodness and mercy of God, was strong and unshaken; one day, rousing from a state of reverie, she said: "I think I know what the transition from life to death is; and I am sure, that the goodness of God softens it to us. Our ideas become confused, and the pain is not very acute."

Her confidence was not disappointed; the profoundest tranquillity presided over her last moments. Long before she expired, the grand struggle had ended, and her soul departed gently. She died July 15th, 1817.

TALBOT.

CATHERINE TALBOT, the intimate friend and companion of the learned Elizabeth Carter, was born in England on the fifteenth of May, 1720. At a very early age, she was taken into the family of Dr. Secker, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, where she enjoyed many advantages in acquiring useful knowledge. These opportunities were duly appreciated and improved by her, and she soon became mistress of music, drawing, and astronomy, also the French, German, and Italian languages. At what age she began to compose does not appear; but great as her talents and brilliant as her accomplishments were, she was still more remarkable for her piety. It was the spring of all her actions, as its reward was the object of all her hopes. Her life, however, affords but little scope for narrative-it passed on in a smooth equable tenor. This was a blessing of which her pious mind was deeply sensible: she was always thankful for days not marked by calamity, nor blackened by the horrors of guilt. On the death of her guardian and learned friend, bishop Secker, who bequeathed her four hundred pounds a year, she removed from Lambeth place to a house in Grosvenor Street, London, where she survived his death but a short time. Her dissolution took place on the ninth day of January, 1770, in the forty-ninth year