ther wish which has reached them must also be disappointed, that of having prefixed to her works a likeness of the author. In personal appearance she was of a tall slight figure, her countenance fair and pretty, and sweetly expressivę, conveyed a true impression of the mind by which it was animated, and is indelibly engraven on every heart that loved her: but her family do not possess any likeness of this beloved friend which they consider good. Both from her appearance, and the engaging modesty of her manner, she looked younger than she was.

Her first work was written about 1811,—a Tract intended to promote enquiry on the subject of religion amongst the Jews. It was sent some time after, anonymously, to a clergyman of the church of England, whose character was well known to her, and who takes an active interest in behalf of that unhappy people. He was requested to make what use of it he pleased, if he considered it calculated to promote the purpose for which it was intended; but whether the whole or any part of it was ever published, remained unknown to the author and her family.

"Dunallan," though the last published of her works, was composed long before any of the

others, about ten years since, during a residence in the country.

The first of her works which was published was "The Decision," in 1821, a little volume intended for the young. The motives which induced the author to write this work, were explained in a letter to her publisher on sending the first part of it, from which an extract may afford some interest.

"It has often struck me that amongst the great variety of excellent little works published of late years, for the purpose of attracting the attention and regard of young people to the subject of religion, scarcely any have been addressed to the youth of the higher classes. At least, I know of very few indeed. It is true, works suited to the poor are equally calculated to teach truth to the rich, when written in the correct and beautiful style that many of them are; but the characters described, and the attendant circumstances, are generally taken from the lower ranks and habits of life, and young people of a higher class too soon learn from those whose opinions they naturally adopt, to consider religion as an excellent thing for the poor, without, at the same time, feeling that they are equally interested in the truths it teaches.

"I have attempted to make the accompanying little work such as a religious friend might present to a young person of a better class, with a hope that it might bring the necessity of personal religion home to the conscience. I am sensi

ble that I have mingled a good deal that is perhaps trifling in the conversations; but feared from what I have observed in young people, that they otherwise would have appeared stiff and unnatural. A second part will, of course, enter more deeply into the subject of religion, &c. &c."

"Profession is not Principle," &c. was first published in 1822. Then followed a little work intended for a different class of readers, "Jessy Allan, or the Lame Girl, a story founded on facts." It is the history of a young woman who was known to the author, and whose real name was Nanny Henderson. She had been educated at a charity school, of which the author took an active and constant charge for many years. Nanny had left school before she began to take an interest in the instruction of the children, and was at that time living alone, and able to support herself by her own work. On her being taken ill, a short time after, the author first visited her, and from herself, and her kind friend the mis

tress of the school, the author was made acquainted with those circumstances of her history which had not come under her own observation. During the few years which remained of poor Nanny's short and suffering life, the author continued to visit, and take an interest in her.

In December 1823, "Father Clement" was first published. "Anna Ross" was published the following spring, and two little tracts, "Andrew Campbell's Visit to his Irish Cousins," and "The Word of God and the Word of Man," intended for Ireland, which she had been requested to write, were published soon after.

"Dunallan" appeared in December 1824. The author was engaged with another long work, entitled "Philip Colville, a Covenanter's Story," which unfortunately is not finished; but as it keeps strictly to the history of the times to which it refers, and is written so as not to require any correction from another, it may perhaps be given to the public. Any one interested in the conclusion of the historical part, can find it in various works.*

The author's desire to remain unknown was

The work here referred to has been published since the above was written; also, a little tract, entitled, "Address to a Destitute Sick Person."

early communicated to her publisher, and she considered herself under much obligation to him for the manner in which he acted on this delicate point, for until the winter of 1824 the name of the author was unknown even to her publisher.

The author enjoyed uninterrupted good health till 1824, when she was frequently indisposed, and towards the close of it she suffered almost constant uneasiness, and her illness became of a more serious nature. Her friends trusting too much to her uncommonly good constitution were not immediately alarmed, until she herself warned them of the painful and most unlooked for event which awaited them. In the full vigour of those powers of mind which heaven had given her, and with the fair prospect of usefulness opening before her, she had no wish for life. She was not merely willing and ready, but she longed to depart and to be with Christ, and she met and welcomed death as it gradually approached, with that unclouded serenity and calmness which evinced her mind to be in "perfect peace." No shade ever darkened the comfort of her soul-she knew "in whom she believed," and in full assurance of faith she waited the coming of her Lord.