"By every Muse, by each domestic grace!

"Be kind to wit, which but endeavours well,

"And where you judge, presumes not to excel." DRYDEN.

NEW-YORK,

PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR:

Samuel Wood & Sons, Printers.

.........

1827.

Gift of

James F. Rhodes

45-97

LADE

ΤΟ

MRS. A. M. TALVANDE,

THIS TESTIMONY OF RESPECT IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED BY

THE AUTHOR.

Friend of my children! If in future days
Their minds, their manners, should elicit praise,
Refin'd, enlighten'd, and to virtue true,
To thy pure precepts be the plaudits due.

Nor them alone; the rising race shall prove,
Those favour'd objects of thy care and love;
Vain is the boast of beauty, pride of birth,
Till culture calls the latent talents forth.

ADVERTISEMENT.

IN offering these pages to the Public, the Author feels that she is as adventurous as one, "who should put to sea upon a narrow plank and trust in miracles for safety;" but she has still the satisfaction of knowing that, in following the bent of her inclination, no duty has been sacrificed. She has not encroached on that time which should have been devoted to other pursuits.

To poetry she turns as a relief from more serious occupations; and, though limited her powers, they yet serve to amuse the passing moment.

These effusions then, the solace of her leisure hours, she now submits to the world. By the critic, their insignificance may be considered as their shield from censure. The lenient and liberal minded will, she trusts, view them with more complacency; and she feels a pleasing conviction, that there are some, who, for the writer's sake, will peruse them with interest.

POEMS.

EXTEMPORE,

On sending a mutilated copy of Miss Crawley's, now
Mrs. Murden's Poems, to the author.

FAREWELL! my little Book, ere long
Thou'lt come again to me;
But, so deck'd out the bards among,
And gaily drest you'll be;

That like the world, I fear you'll scorn

Your friends, and deem them bold,
To sit on shelf, in tatters torn,

Beside a nymph in gold.

Saturday, August 27th, 1825.

1

Few circumstances are better calculated to awaken our feelings than the unexpected sight of any little memorial of the friends of our earlier days. The book accompanying the above sonnet contained the remarks of one long numbered with the dead: his friend will perceive they have not been unnoticed, while the interest taken by the latter in my welfare merits acknowledgment.

"