The Works of Anna Laetitia Barbauld : with a Memoir

FROM THE LIBRARY OF REV. LOUIS FITZGERALD BENSON. D. D, BEQUEATHED BY HIM TO THE LIBRARY OF PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY *«- ScB skcu t3l£o CrLCA. /) yjl">lli. 4. / Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013 http://archive.org/details/nnalaeti03barb OF PI 0.'* 1936 i iu 23 x\ WORKS ANNA LJETITIA BARBAULD WITH A MEMOIR BY LUCY AIKIN. Bright- eyed Fancy hovering o'er Scatters from her pictured urn Thoughts that breathe and words that burn IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. HI. BOSTON. PUBLISHED BY DAVID REED, [S26. CAMBRIDGE : Printed bv Hillwrd & MeteaTft CONTENTS OF VOLUME IN. JUVENILE WORKS. Page A Legacy for Young Ladies. True Magicians 1 A Lecture on the Use of Words 10 The Pine and the Olive: a Fable 13 On Riddles 15 The King in his Castle 20 On Female Studies 24 The Rich and the Poor. : a Dialogue 33 Description of an Animal lately found in the Wilds of Derbyshire 40 On the Classics 42 Letter of a Young King 54 Verses written in the Leaves of an Ivory Pocket-book, presented to master T**** 59 On Plants 61 On a Portrait of a Lady and Two Children 64 Earth 65 On the Uses of History : in Four Letters 68 Fashion : a Vision 94 To Miss D*** 102 On the Birth of a Friend's eldest Son 103 Epitaph on a Goldfinch 105 The Morning Repast 106 Description of Two Sisters 107 A Character 109 Pic-nic 110 viii CONTENTS. Letter from Grimalkin to Selima 11: Petition of a Schoolboy to his Father 117 Tlie River and the Brook : a Fable 120 The Lament: a Ballad 121 Allegory on sleep 123 To ****, occasioned by his Poem on the Sun 127 A Hymn 128 On Friendship 130 Confidence and Modesty: a Fable 135 The Death-Bed 137 A Dialogue of the Dead, between Helen, and Mad. Maintenon 1 39 A Riddle 144 On Expense 145 Evenings at Home. The Wasp and Bee : a Fable , S The Young Mouse : a Fable 4 Alfred : a Drama 5 Animals and their Countries 11 Canute's Reproof to his Courtiers 12 The Masque of Nature , 14 Things by their right Names 16 The Goose and Horse: a Fable 18 On Manufactures 19 The Flying Fish 30 A Lesson in the Art of Distinguishing 31 The Phenix and Dove 40 The Manufacture of Paper 42 The Four Sisters 47 Hymns in Prose for Children 5S LITERARY ESS On the Tatler, Spectator, Guardian, and Freeholder . SI On the Origin and Progress of Romance- Writing . LQ5 LEGACY FOR YOUNG LADIES CONSISTING OF MISCELLANEOUS PIECES, PROSE AND VERSE, PREFACE. The late Mrs. Barbauld was one of the best friends of youth. In her " Early Lessons," and " Prose Hymns," she has condescended to apply her admirable genius to the instruction even of infant minds. Several excellent pieces, adapted to children of different ages, she contributed to Dr. Aikin's "Evenings at Home." That elegant volume of verse and prose, "The Female Speaker," was compiled by her for the use of young ladies, for whom she also made a selection from the Tatlers, Spectators, and Guardians, prefixing to it. an instructive and beautiful Essay. In others of her productions she has given valua- ble advice to parents on the subject of instruction ; and her " Poems " contain many pieces worthy to be early reposited among the choicest stores of an elegant and ingenuous mind. Many young persons of both sexes partook, during the course of her long life, of the benefit of her personal in- structions ; and in the present volume she may be regarded as continuing even from the grave to delight and improve the rising generation. These pieces were found among her papers by the mem- bers of her own family. Some of them enforce moral 1 ruths; others contain instruction in history and other branches of the graver studies of youth ; but the greater number are of a light and elegant cast, adapted to exercise Vlll PREFACE. the ingenuity and amuse the fancy while they refine the taste. Those in the form of letters were all addressed to different ladies whom she favoured with her friendship. Had she herself presented these pieces to the public, it is probable that she would in some instances have extended them by additions which, from her own pen, would have enhanced their value, but which it would have been pre- sumption in any other to attempt. None of them, however, can properly be called fragments : and it was so natural to her to express herself with the highest beauty and perfec- tion of style, that in this respect little difference would be found either in verse or prose, between the slightest sketch she ever traced and the most finished of her admired productions. Lucy Aiki.x. Hampstead, Dec. 1825. A LEGACY FOR YOUNG LADIES. TRUE MAGICIANS. TO MISS C MY DEAR SARAH, 1 have often reflected, since I left you, on the wonder- ful powers of magic exhibited by you and your sister. The dim obscurity of that grotto hollowed out by your hands under the laurel hedge, where you used to mix the ingredients of your incantations, struck us with awe and terror ; and the broom which you so often brandished in your hands made you look very like witches indeed. I must confess, however, that some doubts have now and then arisen in my mind, whether or no you were truly initiated in the secrets of your art ; and these suspicions gathered strength after you had suffered us and yourself to be so all drenched as we were on that rainy Tuesday ; which, to say the least, was a very odd circumstance, considering you had the command of the weather.—As I was pondering these matters alone in the chaise between Epsom and London, I fell asleep and had the following dream. :Z rRUE MAGICIANS. I thought I had been travelling through an unknown country, and came at last to a thick wood cut out into several groves and avenues, the gloom of which in- spired thoughtfulness, and a certain mysterious dread of unknown powers came upon me. I entered however one of the avenues, and found it terminated in a magnificent portal, through which I could discern confusedly among thick foliage, cloistered arches and Grecian porticoes, and people walking and conversing amongst the trees. Over the portal was the following inscription : " Here dwell the true magicians. Nature is our servant. Man is our pupil. We change, we conquer, we create." As I was hesitating whether or no I should pre- sume to enter, a pilgrim, who was sitting under the shade, offered to be my guide, assuring me that these magicians would do me no harm, and that so far from having any objection to be observed in their op- erations, they were pleased with any opportunity of exhibiting them to the curious. In therefore I went, and addressed the first of the magicians I met with, who asked me whether I liked panoramas. On re- plying that I thought them very entertaining, she took me to a little eminence and bade me look round. I did so, and beheld the representation of the beautiful vale of Dorking, with Norbury-park and Box-hill to the north, Riegate to the east, and Leitli tower with the Surry hills to the south. After I had admired for some time the beauty and accuracy of the paint- ing, a vast curtain seemed to be drawn gradually up. and my view extended on all sides. On one hand 1 traced the windings of the Thames up to Oxford, and stretched my eye westward over Salisbury Plain, and across the Bristol Channel into the romantic ex- country of South Wales ; northward the view tended to Lincoln cathedral, and York minster towo-- ; TRUE MAGICIANS. o ing over the rest of the churches. Across the Sus- sex downs I had a clear view of the British Channel, and the opposite coast of France, with its ports blockaded by our fleets. As the horizon of the panorama still extended, I spied the towers of Notre Dame, and the Tuilleries, and my eye wandered at large over " The vine-covered hills and gay regions of France," quite down to the source of the Loire. At the same time the great Atlantic ocean opened to my view ; and on the other hand I saw the lake of Geneva, and the dark ridge of Mount Jura, and dis- covered the summits of the Alps covered with snow and beyond, the orange groves of Italy, the majestic dome of St. Peter's, and the smoking crater of Ve- suvius. As the curtain still rose, I stretched my view over the Mediterranean, the scene of ancient glory, the Archipelago studded with islands, the shores of the Bosphorus, and the gilded minarets and Cyprus groves of Constantinople. Throwing back a look to the less attractive north, I saw pictured the rugged, broken coast of Norway, the cheerless moors of Lap- land, and the interminable desolation of the plains of Siberia. Turning my eye again southward, the land- scape extended to the plains of Barbary, covered with date-trees ; and I discerned the points of pyramids appearing above the horizon, and saw the Delta and the seven-mouthed Nile. In short, the curtain still rose, and the view extended further and further till the panorama took in the whole globe. I cannot express to you the pleasure I felt as I saw mountains, seas, and islands, spread out before me. Sometimes my eye wandered over the vast plains of Tartary, sometimes it expatiated in the savannahs of America.

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