blind like thee. On him the true sun never dawned; yet he sung, though erroneously, of all-ruling Providence, and faintly looked up to the parent of gods and men. Thy vivid fancy, O Ossian, what beheld it but a cloudy Fingal! Vain is the pride of ancestry: thou remainest by choice an orphan, in an orphan world. Did the dweller of the rock never point out to thy friendless age a kindred higher than the heavens? a brotherhood wide as the world?—a staff to thy failing steps?—a light to thy sightless soul? And didst thou reject them, Ossian? What then is genius but a meteor brightness? The humble, the mild, the simple, the uneloquent, with peaceful steps followed their welcome pastor into fair meads of everlasting verdure, while thou sittest gloomy on the storm-beaten hill, repeating to the angry blast the boast of human pride, the tales of devastation, the deeds of other times. Far other times are these. Ah!

would they were! Still destruction spreads; still human pride rises with the tigers of the desert, and utters its horrid boast!"

Authorities." Memoirs of Miss Talbot." "Life of Mrs.

Carter."

222

MISS ELIZABETH HAMILTON.

"In the same proportion that mind is superior to matter, so is the acquisition of knowledge exalted above every other pursuit. Omniscience is an attribute of the Deity. To cultivate our intellectual faculties, therefore, is to approach nearer to that divine perfection, which we adore, but cannot comprehend."

THAT memoirs of literary persons are in general barren of incident, is a trite objection, which may be made to many other subjects of biographical composition; since, with the exception of warriors and adventurers, there are few individuals whose domestic annals might not be epitomised in a monumental inscription. But, has biography no higher object than to collate facts and dates, and chronicle events? Should it not rather trace the progress of character, as developed in those habits and principles which operate universally on the happiness or misery of mankind? The history of the individual, to be complete, must include the history of his mind, and exhibit all its passions, its prejudices, its affections, whatever belongs to its moral system.

In a life devoted to quiet and seclusion, there may have occurred revolutions of opinion and vicissitudes of feeling, which, to those who study human nature, are no less curious, and even more interesting, than the external changes of fortune, which popularly attract attention and awaken sympathy.

Miss Elizabeth Hamilton was descended from the Hamiltons of Woodhall, who not only considered themselves one of the oldest Saxon families established in Scotland, but also as the stock whence several ennobled branches in France and Germany have originated. The father of Miss Hamilton was a gentleman of fine abilities and amiable disposition. He married early in life, a young lady of the name of Mackay, who added to superior intellectual endowments all the attractions of an elegant person. In Ireland, where he settled, his mercantile engagements wore such a promising aspect, as to leave him no pecuniary anxieties respecting his rising family; and as his good state of health had been also uninterrupted, the future prospect was bright and flattering. "Alas!" observes Miss Hamilton, in a biographical fragment relative to her family, "no warning cloud prepared my unhappy mother for the fate that awaited her." She early became a widow; and although she was a woman of rare endowments, it required all

the energy of her religious principles, and even more than the firmness of her well-regulated mind, to support with equanimity the fatal stroke, by which she was not only deprived of happiness, but plunged into embarrassment and perplexity. To supply to her bereaved children the excellent parent they had lost, was the chief object of her anxiety, and the pursuit from which alone she could derive a permanent consolation. From her letters it is obvious, that, like the mother of Sir William Jones, she considered a good education as the noblest patrimony; and she was confirmed in this sentiment by her elder brother, the Rev. Mr. Mackay, who resided in her family, and, by his liberal spirit, cultivated understanding, and amiable manners, contributed materially to its happiness and improvement. The youngest daughter, Elizabeth, was born in 1758, and consigned, when only six years of age, to the care of Mr. and Mrs. Marshall, who resided in Scotland.

In 1766, Mrs. Hamilton, who was then in a declining state of health, passed part of the summer in Scotland, and saw, for the last time, her beloved child. The death of this excellent parent, in the following year, was severely felt by her two elder children. On Elizabeth, however, the impression must have been slighter, as she was still young, and much attached to

her worthy guardians, who resided in a solitary mansion near Stirling. Mr. Marshall was born in a humble station of life, although the qualities of his mind, and the benevolence of his heart, might have reflected lustre upon the highest. He was, in fact, one of those men, to whom might be well applied the expression of Burns, when he remarked of an Ayrshire friend, "that he held his patent of nobility from heaven itself." He married the sister of Mr. Hamilton, a lady of great personal attractions, and fine understanding, who had been early conversant with adversity. Her father died while she was yet young, and his death was attributed to the misfortunes into which he had been plunged by the extravagance of his wife, which his high sense of honour rendered him unable to bear. It was not without a considerable struggle, that his daughter, who then resided under the patronage of an aunt, could bring herself to listen to the overtures of Mr. Marshall, whose rank in life was so much inferior to that in which she had been accustomed to move. Time, however, as it developed his extraordinary merits, at length reconciled her to an alliance, which, though little gratifying to her family consequence, bid fare to insure her happiness. She was not disappointed in this expectation; and, in the two-and-twenty