courses, the first on 'Habitual Devotion" and the other on "The Duty of not Living to Ourselves," first published in 1782, he states: "To the former of these discourses the public are already under considerable obligations, though they have been ignorant of it, as it was the occasion of that excellent poem of Mrs. Barbauld's entitled 'An Address to the Deity,' which was composed immediately after the first delivery of it before an assembly of ministers at Wakefield, in Yorkshire, in the year 1769. Were I to inform my readers how soon the poem appeared after the delivery of the discourse, it would add much to their idea of the powers of the writer. I could make the same observation with respect to several other pieces, and some of the most admired in that collection." He then quoted from it several portions of the poem which he considered peculiarly suitable and appropriate for the purpose, and so closed his Preface. Many years after Mrs. Barbauld's death, Miss Lucy Aikin, in writing to her friend Dr. Channing, of Boston, U. S. A., says, "I have a vivid memory of Priestley, the friend of my father, the dearer and more intimate friend of my aunt, Mrs. Barbauld. My aunt has said of him, with as much truth as brilliancy, that he followed truth as a man who hawks follows his sport, at full speed, straight forward, looking only upward, and regardless into what difficulties the chase may lead him."

When Miss Aikin left the friendly and hospitable home of Mr. Turner, she placed in the hands of his little son, a child seven years of age, the writer of the sketch to which I refer and have already quoted from, "an ivory memorandum-book, on the leaves of which, after she was gone, were found written the following lines." They contain a beautiful tribute to the virtues and character of the elder Mr. Turner, and are so pretty and playfully impressive that he printed them :

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'Accept, my dear, this toy, and let me say,

The leaves an emblem of your mind display.
Your youthful mind, uncolored, pure, and white,
Like crystal leaves, transparent to the sight,
Fit each impression to receive whate'er
The finger of instruction traces there.
O, then transcribe into the shining page
Each virtue that adorns your tender age;
And grave upon the tablet of your heart
Each lofty science and each useful art!

'But, with the likeness, mark the difference well,

Nor think complete the hasty parallel.

These leaves by folly scrawled, or foul with stains,

A drop of water clears with little pains;

But from a blotted mind the smallest trace

Not seas of bitter tears can e'er efface,

The spreading mark forever will remain,

And rolling years but deepen every stain.

"Once more one difference let me still explain :

The vacant leaves thus ever will remain,

Till some officious hand the tablet fill

With sense or nonsense, prose or rhyme, at will. Not so your mind without your forming care; Nature forbids an idle vacuum there; Folly will plant her tares without your toil, And weeds spring up in the neglected soil. "But why to you this moralizing strain?

"Yet should kind heaven thy opening mind adorn,
And bless thy noon of knowledge as thy morn,
Yet were thy mind with every science blest,
And every virtue glowing in thy breast,

With learning, meekness, and with candor, zeal,
Clear to discern, and generous to feel,

CHAPTER III.

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LETTERS TO FAMILY AND FRIENDS. — JOHN AIKIN, M.D. —HIS RETURN TO WARRINGTON. HIS LITERARY PRODUCTIONS. - PREPARES HIS SISTER'S POEMS FOR PUBLICATION. - POEMS PRINTED IN 1773. ADDRESS TO THE CORSICANS. MISCELLANEOUS PIECES COLLECTED AND PUBLISHED IN 1773. - REMARKS OF Fox. CRITICISM OF DR. JOHNSON ON THE IMITATION OF HIS STYLE. ESSAY IN THE "CHRISTIAN REFORMER."

ISS AIKIN says of her aunt's letters that they

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"were certainly never intended by herself to meet the public eye"; she adds, however, that it was "impossible not to be influenced also by the desire of thus communicating to those admirers of Mrs. Barbauld's genius who did not enjoy the advantage of her personal acquaintance a just idea of the pointed and elegant remark, the sportive and lambent wit, the affectionate spirit of sympathy, and the courteous expressions of esteem and benevolence, which united to form at once the graces of her epistolary style and the inexpressible charm of her conversation." Her first letter placed before the reader is dated 1771, and is addressed to her life-long friend, Miss Belshain, afterwards Mrs.

Kenrick. The letters are certainly charming, and full of life and spirit; several of them have in them allegorical tales and jeu d'esprit in their writer's best and inimitable manner, and all add much to her reputation for mind, heart, and the highest degree of culture and elegance. Cheap postage had not reduced letter-writing to the slight and hasty work now given it as a rule, and a letter might be as elaborate as possible without exciting either surprise from the receiver or apology from the writer for its length. Letters of that time have therefore, and always must have, an interest for the public, as the natural, full, and personal record of feelings and events, and as first impressions of men and women. If an ordinary letter-writer can so interest, what shall be said of the fascination and attraction which a superior mind and animated fancy throw over a correspondence? The letters of Mrs. Barbauld deserve to rank with the first and best the world has yet seen, and the only thing to be regretted is the limit to their number. Those we have must, however, afford excellent specimens of her style, and undoubtedly are among the best and choicest of her letters, and were kept by her friends with that feeling.

LETTER TO MISS E. BELSHAM, AFTERWARDS MRS. KENRICK. LONDON, February, 1771.

Believe me, my dear Betsy, my heart has some time reproached me for being in your debt. . . . . I am much