dramas, and a very fine tragedy—"Panthea." Her death occurred in 1792.
GOUGES, MARIE OLYMPE DE,
A native of Montauban. During the revolution she espoused the cause of the people, and made Mirabeau the hero of her writings. But the enormities of the Jacobins disgusted her; and when Louis the Sixteenth was dragged before the tribunal, she had the courage to demand the privilege of defending him. This heroic conduct, and her attacks on Marat and Robespierre, marked her out for death. She was guillotined November 3rd., 1792, aged thirty-eight. She wrote several dramas. Her character as a woman was by no means irreproachable.
GOULD, HANNAH FLAGG,
Is a native of Lancaster, in the State of Vermont, North America; but in her early youth her father, who was a veteran of the Revolution, removed to Newburyport, in Massachusetts, where she has since resided. Her mother died when Hannah was young, and for many years, even until the decease of her beloved father, she was his housekeeper, nurse, companion, and the chief source of his earthly happiness.
Miss Gould commenced her literary career as nearly all American authors do, by writing for periodicals. Her contributions were chiefly poetical; these she collected, and in 1832 her first volume of poems was published in Boston. Since then, two addition volumes of her poems have been issued; and in 1846, a volume of prose, entitled "Gathered Leaves, or Miscellaneous Papers," which had previously been contributions to annuals, appeared. In 1850, "Diosma—a perennial," a volume of poems, selected and original, and "The Youth's Coronal," a little book of poems for children, were published.
Miss Gould possesses great delicacy and scope of imagination; she gathers around her simple themes imagery of peculiar beauty and uncommon association—and yet this imagery is always appropriate. Then she has a very felicitous command of language, and the skill of making the most uncouth words "lie smooth in rhyme," which the greatest poet of the age might envy. And she, not seldom, displays humorous turns of thought, and a sportive raillery which is very amusing.
Wit is a much rarer quality than wisdom in female writers, and Miss Gould's sprightly wit has the advantage of appearing quite original. She, however, uses it with great delicacy, and always to teach or enforce some lesson which would not disparage "divine Philosophy" to inculcate.—In truth, the great power of her poetry is its moral application. This hallows every object she looks upon, and ennobles every incident she celebrates. She takes lowly and homely themes, but she turns them to the light of heaven, and they are beautified, and refined, and elevated. She brings to her God the rich treasures of her intellect, and the warm feelings of her heart. Everywhere and in everything she sees and feels His presence; and her song rises in those "spiritual breathings," which lift the hearts of her readers, to unite with her in praise to the Lord.
