THE LADIES' WREATH. PART SECOND. LYDIA HUNTLEY SIGOURNEY. We have now arrived at the part assigned to our American ladies; and it is with no small pleasure as well as pride that we may begin our list with a name deservedly honored and distinguished. The task of examining the productions and judging the literary merit of living and cotemporary writers, is a difficult and delicate one, more especially when those writers are our own countrywomen, and esteemed correspondents or personal friends. But respecting the talents and merits of Mrs. Sigourney there will be no doubt or cavil. She has nobly won her high place in the literature of our country. Lydia Huntley was born in Norwich, Connecticut. She was the only child of her parents, and reared with great tenderness. Her parentage was in that happy mediocrity of fortune which requires industry, yet encourages hope-and the habits of order and diligence, to which she was sedulously trained by her judicious mother, have, no doubt, been of inestimable advantage to the poetess. She early exhibited indica tions of genius-perhaps the loneliness of her brotherless and sisterless lot had an influence in substituting intellectual pursuits for the common sports of childhood. We are by no means in favor of establishing precocity of intellect as the standard of real genius; yet it is certain that many distinguished persons have been marked in childhood as extraordinary-the opening blossom has given forth the sweet odor which the rich fruit, like that of the Mangostan, embodies in its delicious perfection. At eight years of age, the little Lydia was a scribbler of rhymes-like Pope lisping in numbers. Her first work was published in 1815. It was a small volume, entitled "Miscellaneous Pieces in Prose and Verse." Before this period, however, she had fortunately met with a judicious and most generous patron. To Daniel Wadsworth, Esq., of Hartford, belongs the tribute of praise which is due for drawing such a mind from the obscurity where it had remained "afar from the untasted sunbeam."-In 1819, Miss Huntley was married to Charles Sigourney, a respectable merchant of Hartford, and a gentleman of cultivated taste and good literary attainments. From that period Mrs. Sigourney has devoted the leisure which the wife of a man of wealth may always command, to literary pursuits. And her improvement has been rapid and great. Her published works are "Traits of the Aborigines," a poem written in blank verse: "Connecticut Forty Years Since," a prose volume, principally of traditionary description: three volumes of "Poems"a volume of prose "Sketches"-"Letters to Young Ladies" and a number of small books for children.In all these works, varied as they are in style and subject, one purpose is recognised as the governing motive -the purpose of doing good. In her prose writings, this zeal of heart is the great charm. She always de scribes nature with a lover's feeling for its beauties, and with much delicacy and taste: still we think her talent for description is much more graceful and at home in the measured lines of her poetry, than in her best prose. Her genius brightens in the Muses' smile, and she can command by that spell, as Prospero could with his staff, the attendance of the "delicate spirit" of Fancy, which, like Ariel, brings "Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not;" and those "solemn-breathing strains" that move conscience to its repentant work, or lift the trusting and contrite soul to heaven. "Oh God! who can describe Niagara?" exclaimed Mrs. Butler, in the agony of her admiration. Mrs. Sigourney has described it, and worthily too—and this single poem would be sufficient to establish her fame. It does more and better, it stamps her as the devoted Christian; for except faith in the "dread Invisible" had sustained her genius, and trust in the Savior had kept warm the fount of sympathy in her heart, she could not have surrounded a theme so awful, strange and lonely, with such images of beauty and hope. True it is, that female poetic writers owe their happiest efforts to religious feelings. Devotion seems to endow them with the martyr's glowing fervency of spirit. In the actual world the path of woman is very circumscribed, but in that "better land" her imagination may range with the freedom of an angel's wing. And there the genius of Mrs. Sigourney delights to expatiate. And this constant uplifting of her spirit has given a peculiar cast to her language and style; rendering the stately blank verse measure the readiest vehicle of her fancies. She has a wonderful command of words, and the fetters of rhyme check the free expression of her thoughts. She is also endowed with a fine pecreption of the harmonious and appropiate, and hence the smooth flow of the lines, and the perfect adaptation of the language to the subject. These qualities eminently fit her to be the eulogist of departed worth; and incline her elegiac poetry. To her tender feelings and naturally contemplative mind, every knell that summons the mourner to weep awakens her sympathy, and the dirge flows, as would her tears, to comfort the bereaved were she beside them. Nor is the death song of necessity melancholy. Many of hers sound the notes of holy triumph, and awaken the brightest anticipations of felicity-ay, 66 "Teach us of the melody of heaven." She leaves not the trophy of death at the tomb," but shows us the "Resurrectiou and Life." Thus she elevates the hopes of the Christian, and chastens the thoughts of the worldly minded. This is her mission, the true purpose of her heaven-endowed mind; for the inspirations of genius are from heaven, and when not perverted by a corrupt will, rise as naturally upward as the morning dew on the flower is exhaled to the skies. The genius of Mrs. Sigourney, like the "imperial Passion Flower," has always been "Consecrate to Salem's peaceful king, Though fair as any gracing beauty's bower, It is this sadness which shows her strains to be of earth-their purity and serene loveliness are angelic. If there is a want felt in reading her effusions, it is that of fervency: the light is brilliant, but it does not kindle into flame. Her "truths" need to be more "impassioned," to produce their greatest effect. Yet this deficiency arises from that delicacy of taste, which makes her fear to pour forth the full gush of her feelings. And it is very rare that a woman can or will do this. Hence much of the monotony and mediocrity of their poetry. We must not omit to record that Mrs. Sigourney is an example to her sex in private life, as well as their admiration in her public career. She is a good wife and devoted mother; she has two children, whom she has hitherto educated entirely herself-and in all domestic knowledge and the scrupulous performances of domestic duties, she shows as ready acquaintance and as much skill as though these only formed her pursuit. Her literary studies are her recreation-surely as rational a mode of occupying the leisure of a lady as the morning call, or the fashionable party. NIAGARA. FLOW on forever, in thy glorious robe Keep silence, and upon thy rocky altar pour And who can dare To lift the insect trump of earthly hope, |