called, The leader of our band.' It was her office to play the organ, while her two sisters sung, and I accompanied on the violoncello. Some time after, I became a student of Hebrew. My Catharine followed me through all my grammatical memorandums, and was able to read and construe the original Scriptures as well as myself. She was, at the same time, our most expert botanist, excepting one of my sisters, and a considerable proficient in physic. "I should weary you with my story, were I to describe every little accomplishment, and every good quality. Indeed, I believe, that to some parts of her character I am still a stranger. She was extremely diffident. In her last illness, I frequently read sermons to her, at her request, and was surprised to find that she was acquainted with most of them. One of her sisters told me, that it had always been her custom, when left alone on a Sunday, to read the psalms, lessons, and two or three sermons. "I will say no more. She is gone! I am happy that I have been her friend! Death has not visited us before, since the loss of my father. It is all well. She told me that she was satisfied; and why should I complain? She wished she could have carried me with her to heaven; but comforted herself by thinking, that, although parted, we could none of us stay long behind her. 'Yes, my sweet treasure, Catharine, is gone. Authority." Works of the Rev. James Hurdis." 258 MISS ELIZABETH SMITH. "Let such women as are disposed to be vain of their comparatively petty attainments, look up with admiration to those contemporary shining examples, the venerable Elizabeth Carter, and the blooming Elizabeth Smith. I knew them both, and to know was to venerate them. In them let our young ladies contemplate profound and various learning, chastened by true Christian humility. In them let them venerate acquirements which would have been distinguished at a university, meekly softened, and beautifully shaded by the gentle exertion of every domestic virtue, the unaffected exercise of every feminine employment." MORE. MISS ELIZABETH SMITH was born in 1776, at Burnham, near Durham, the beautiful residence of her paternal ancestors. At a very early period she discovered that love of reading, and close application to whatever she engaged in, which marked her character throughout life. What in others is usually the result of education and habit, seemed to be born with her: whatever she did, was performed correctly, and with reflection greatly above her years. When only thirteen, she had made considerable progress in French, Italian, music, dancing, drawing, and perspective. Circumstances, apparently trifling, not unfrequently determine our character, and sometimes our allotment in life. There is every reason to believe that Miss Smith was first induced to apply herself to the study of the learned languages, by accidentally hearing that the late Mrs. Bowdler had acquired the Greek and Hebrew, for the sole purpose of reading the Holy Scriptures in the original. In the summer of 1789, that excellent lady, with her youngest daughter, spent a month at Piercefield, then the residence of the Smith family. "It was," says Mrs. Smith, "one of the happiest periods of my life, and from the abovementioned visit I date the turn of study which my beloved daughter ever afterwards pursued, and in which, I firmly believe, the amiable conduct of our guests first led her to delight. With young persons, the late Mrs. Bowdler had a manner peculiar to herself, which never failed to secure their affections, at the moment when she conveyed to their minds the most important instructions. The word of God was her chief study and delight, and she always endeavoured to make it so to others; while the strength of her understanding, and the clearness of her intellect, commanded the respect and esteem of all who heard her. From the period of our first acquaintance, till the day of her death, I had in Mrs. Bowdler, the steadiest and most affectionate of friends: a friend who had at heart, not only the temporal, but eternal happiness of myself and family; and who, in proportion as summer friends flew off, became yet more attached to me." Amidst the beautiful scenery of Piercefield, Elizabeth continued her literary pursuits, till the commencement of the year 1793, when an unexpected reverse of fortune evinced the uncertainty of the fairest temporal prospects. We are indebted to the elegant pen of Mrs. Bowdler, for the following interesting account of the melancholy event. "I went to Piercefield immediately on receiving information of the circumstances which had occurred; but I will not attempt to describe the scene to which I was then a witness. I had long seen and admired Mrs. Smith, in one of the finest places in England, surrounded by her lovely children, with all the comforts of affluence, and delighting her happy guests by. the fascinating charms of her conversation; yet, through all the misfortunes which marked the period to which I am now alluding, I can with truth say of Mrs. Smith, what she says of her admirable daughter, that I do not remember a single murmur to have escaped her lips; and the loss of fortune, as it was occasioned neither by |