of course, supposed to belong to the masculine gender; but the truth was not long concealed. Mrs. Marsh's writings are most essentially feminine; none but a woman could have penned them. That gushing spring of tenderness was never placed in a man's bosom; or, if it were, it would have been dried up by passion, or frozen by mingling with the selfish current of out-of-door life, long before the age of book-making had arrived. Mrs. Marsh has a peculiar gift of the pathetic; for the most part, it is difficult to read her stories without tears. You may criticise these stories; you may point out incongruities, errors of style and of language; yet they have a mastery over your feelings; they cause emotions which you cannot control—and this is the power of genius, ay, genius itself. Her tender epithets and prodigal use of "pet names" may be censured; few writers could so constantly indulge themselves in this way without taking the fatal "step" into the "ridiculous," which is never to be redeemed. But no candid reader can ever accuse Mrs. Marsh of affectation; she writes spontaneously, and it is evident she throws herself into the situations she describes, and pours out the overflowings of a mind of deep sensibility and tenderness.
Without cramming the reader with "morality in doses," Mrs. Marsh never lets an occasion pass for enforcing truth and virtue; her works are pervaded by a spirit of piety, and benevolence is evidently a strong principle in her nature. Her later productions, though not so painfully interesting as the two first, show more knowledge, judgment, and right discipline of mind; yet one fault, which belongs to many female novelists, may be noted—too many incidents are crowded in each work. Still, "Angela" is one of the most charming pictures of disinterested, struggling virtue, English literature can boast; and this work, "Emily Wyndham," and "Mordaunt Hall" have obtained the notice and eulogiums of the most eminent French critics.
Mrs. Marsh resides near London; her husband is a partner in the banking firm of Fauntleroy, Graham, Stacey, and Marsh; she has had a large family, which occupied much of her time and attention during the early years of her marriage.
MARTHA, SISTER, (ANNE BIGET,)
Was born on the 26th. of October, 1748, at Thoraise, a pleasant village situated on the Doub, near Besancjon. Her parents were poor, hard-working country folks. From infancy she showed an uncommonly tender and kind disposition; always wishing to aid those who were in any distress; ever willing to share her dinner with the beggar or the wayfarer. At the age to be placed in some service, she petitioned and obtained the situation of tourière sister in the convent of the Visitation. This monastic establishment had been founded by the Baroness of Chartal; it was chiefly intended as an asylum for young ladies of high birth, who needed a protecting refuge, or whose piety urged them to withdraw from the world; but as the delicate education and habits of such ladies would render them inadequate to many rough duties essential to every household, the convent received poor girls from the families of peasants and petty artizans, who had been used from childhood to labour and fatigue. In this capacity Anne Biget was received. Upon pronouncing her tows, she took the name of Sister Martha,
