yet sixteen: her mother says she had resolved never to marry. "Her reasons," continues her mother, "for this decision were, that her peculiar habits, her entire devotion to her books, and scribbling (as she called it) unfitted her for the care of a family; she could not do justice to husband or children, while her whole soul was absorbed in literary pursuits; she was not willing to resign them for any man; therefore she had formed the resolution to lead a single life,"—a resolution that would have lasted probably till she had passed under the dominion of a stronger passion than her love for the Muses. With affections like hers, and a most lovely person and attractive manners, her resolution would scarcely have enabled her to escape the common destiny of her sex. The following is an extract from a letter written after participating in several gay parties: "Indeed, my dear brother, I have turned round like a. top for the last two or three weeks, and am glad to seat myself once more in my favorite corner. How, think you, should I stand it to be whirled in the giddy round of dissipation? I come home from the blaze of light, from the laugh of mirth, the smile of complaisance, and seeming happiness, and the vision passes from my mind like the brilliant but transitory hues of the rainbow; and I think with regret on the many, very many happy hours I have passed with you and Annie. O! I do want to see you, indeed I do. You think me wild, thoughtless, and perhaps unfeeling; but I assure you I can be sober. I sometimes think, and I can and do feel. Why have you not written? not one word in almost three weeks! Dear brother
