THE GENIUS AND WRITINGS OF MRS. SIGOURNEY. THE LITERARY WOMEN OF AMERICA. ment to nurture-the object is apparent throughout, and she never once deviates from it. The solidity of her reputation, the affectionate regard in which she is held by the wise and good every BY THE EDITOR. ПHERE is something in the personal character where, result, in a great measure, from her almost history of Sigourney something in adherence to great principle. the general tone and spirit of her writings that would almost disarm criticism, even if occasion might here and there be found for its exercise. There is nothing in her spirit to provoke it; while on the other hand, the elevated moral tone, the deep and all-pervading religious sentiment, and the chastened, sympathizing, and subdued feeling that characterizes it, enshrine her genius as with so many sacred defenses, and defenses, too, so sacred that the attempt to break through them would seem almost sacrilegious. Coupled, as these elements are, with intrinsic worth, they not only disarm criticism, but excite a strong interest in her productions. One trait in her literary productions can not fail to strike the attention and call forth the commendation of every reader, and that is the constant preservation of her womanly identity. She never loses the woman in the writer. Sometimes contact with the public, through the press, tends to obliterate the shrinking delicacy of woman's nature, or it becomes overtopped by the subtile spirit of ambitious aspiring. Contact with the public for nearly forty years has wrought nothing of this in Mrs. Sigourney; nor has the applause murmured by myriad tongues in both hemispheres. Her womanly delicacy gilds every page traced by her pen, and sheds a beautiful halo around her genius. For this we commend her; and in this she is a more happy example of what a female writer ought to be than almost any other that the age has produced. This is the reason why her name has become a household word in all lands where Christian virtues are cherished; and we may say of her as she has sung of Mrs. Hemans: "Every unborn age Shall mix thee with its household charities; In the lone temple of her sanctity; And the young child who takes thee by the hand, In her poem-The Muse-she has the conception of the spirit of poesy as a welcome friend accompanying her from childhood up to later years. Thus it came in childhood: "When first it would steal o'er my infantine hour, The tinkling chime of the words it gave." "And now though my life from its zenith doth wane, One great cause of the preservation of this character, is to be found in the fact that she uniformly employs her pen with one great and paramount object; namely, that of doing good. "It is always to commend what is beautiful, to honor religion, to inculcate morality, to elevate the character of her sex, to administer comfort to bleeding hearts, to discourage false views of life, to promote social harmony, to honor the affections, to express gratitude, to excite veneration for things, present or past, that deserve veneration, to paint natural sorrows or pure joys, to fill the atmosphere around her with hopes that 'make not ashamed' and desires that need no chastening-well as in nature." that Mrs. Sigourney writes." She seems ever true to this principle. Mere freaks of imagination she never essays. She always has a lesson to teach, a moral to inculcate, or a religious senti The late A. H. Everett, one of the finest scholars and best critics this country has produced, says of Mrs. Sigourney's writings: "They express, with great purity and evident sincerity, the tender affections which are so natural to the female heart, and the lofty aspirations after a higher and better state of being which constitute the truly ennobling and elevating principle in art as He also adds: "If her powers of expression were equal to the purity and elevation of her habits of thought and feeling, she would be a female Milton or a Christian Pindar. But though she does not inherit "The force and ample pinion that the Theban eagles bear, Sailing with supreme dominion through the liquid vaults of air," she nevertheless manages language with ease and eloquence, and often with much of the curiosa felicitas, that 'refined felicity' of expression which is, after all, the principal charm in poetry. In blank verse she is very successful. The poems she has written in this measure have not unfrequently much of the manner of Wordsworth, and may be nearly or quite as highly relished by his admirers." It has sometimes been objected that Mrs. Sigourney rarely ever looks at nature or human life from any other than one position. To us this objection has no force so long as it is conceded that that position is the true stand-point from which all just views of nature and human life are to be obtained. That the grave, the elegiac predominate in her writings, she herself admits; but silences the objector by that true saying of Lord Bacon: "We shall find as many hearse-like harmonies as carols if we listen to the harp of David." But her elegiac strains are not those of gloom or despair, but rather of hopeful, trusting sympathy. It has been well said that "her muse has been a comforter to the mourner. No poet has written such a number of these songs, nor are these of necessity melancholy. Many of hers sound the notes of holy triumph and awaken the highest anticipations of felicity; ay, 'Teach us of the melody of heaven.' She leaves not the trophy of death at the tomb, but shows us 'the resurrection and the life.' Thus she elevates the hopes of the Christian and chastens the thought of the worldly-minded. This is her mission, the true purpose of her heavenendowed mind; for the inspirations of genius are from heaven, and, when not perverted by a corrupt will, rise upward as naturally as the morning dew on the flower is exhaled to the skies." We have a fine illustration of the almost enlivening tones of her muse when treating of such dread subjects as death and the grave in the stanzas, "A Butterfly on a Child's Grave:" "A butterfly bask'd on a baby's grave, Where a lily had chanced to grow: Then it lightly soar'd through the sunny air, 'I was a worm till I won my wings, And she whom thou mourn'st like a seraph sings: There is a trans lucent purity of thought and VOL. XV.-12 feeling displayed in all her delineations of the domestic and religious affections. Her sympathies are here poured forth with all the intensity of her womanly nature. Her constructive power, her creative genius, though not of the highest order-not of that order that stands aloof from the ordinary modes of human thought, and refuses the practical lessons of experience, is by no means deficient. In her prose writings she displays a distinctness and breadth of perception, a force of argument, an aptness of illustration, and a ready command of choice and expressive words which indicate no ordinary powers of mind. She describes nature, too, and deciphers its great lessons with a delicate and truthful appreciation. These traits make her prose productions popular and useful. Poetry is her true element. Here she is at home, and her genius brightens in the smile of the muses. We can not wonder, as she was seized by the spell or borne away by the inspirations of the muse, that she should say: "Methought 'twas no folly such garlands to twine, As could brighten life's cares, and its pleasures refine." Her prose writings will live long and do much good; her letters to mothers, to young ladies, to her pupils, and that genial, delightful production— Past Meridian-are works that will not soon die. But her fame will rest on her poetical and not on her prose writings. In the world of literature, in coming ages, she will be known as a poet; nor will it be by that name almost invidiously attached to her though kindly intended-"the Mrs. Hemans of America;" for Mrs. Sigourney has as true an identity in the world of literature as Mrs. Hemans; and we doubt not that her recognition, by future ages, as a truly inspired poet will be as hearty and as enduring. Does any one doubt whether true pathos-deep and holy pathos-is to be found in the lines of Mrs. Sigourney? let him read the poem entitled "To-Morrow," or "The Emigrant Mother," or "Unspoken Language," or "The Mohawk Warrior," or others of a similar character. We doubt whether Wordsworth ever produced any thing that speaks more tenderly or stronger to the heart than "The Emigrant Mother" and "To-Morrow." Let us take a single scene from "Unspoken Language:" "I had a friend In curtain'd room she dwelt, Was broken; but the violet-tinctured eye When the life-tide crept The last faint tone Was a fond sister's name, one o'er whose grave The lips of welcome to the occupant Of her own infant cradle? So 'twould seem. But that fix'd eye no further answer deigned, Strength of expression as well as striking imagery are by no means wanting in Mrs. Sigourney's poems. Take the following description of the woodman. We can hardly conceive how any thing can be more compact or expressive. "He lifts his puny arm, And every echo of the ax doth hew The iron heart of centuries away." Mantled around thy feet. And he doth give Keep silence and upon thine altar pour Earth fears to lift The insect-trump that tells her trifling joys The morning stars that hailed creation's birth, Take another specimen from the poem on beauty of imagery, for strength and felicity of ex"Friendship with Nature:" "Regard not time's brief tyranny, O man! Made in God's image; but uplift thy brow, "Unrifled Cabinet:" "In the mind's storehouse, gold we had, and gems Surely it was no feeble power of thought that gave birth to conceptions so noble, and wrought them into a combination of such beauty and strength. They would not sully the page of Milton; and found among the gems of Wordsworth or Mrs. Hemans, the friends of either would be proud to own them. pression, this poem has rarely been surpassed. It thrills the soul like the voice of the cataract itself. The genial and sympathetic nature of the poet is well expressed in the following paragraph from a poem addressed to "The Teacher." She is seconding the plea made by the young and joyous ones for a holiday: "It is well To mingle sunbeams with the seed that sows We had made additional selections illustrative of other traits of Mrs. Sigourney's genius as a Standing upon the bank of that mighty cata-poet, but have not space for them here. We will only add, that the healthy moral energy which ract, in the agony of her admiration, Mrs. Butler is diffused throughout her poems as well as prose exclaimed, "O God! who can describe Niagara?" writings, is constantly stealing into the reader's Let the reader drink in the inspiration and grand-mind; it comes like a spirit influence-soft, geneur of the following lines from Mrs. Sigourney's poem entitled "Niagara," and then answer: "Flow on forever in thy glorious robe Of terror and of beauty. Yea, flow on tle, but powerful. It indicates the presence of the real poet; it possesses the power of imparting greater strength and a holier tone to the better sentiments and sympathies of the heart; its drawings are ever upward and heavenward. EDITOR'S REPOSITORY. Scripture Cabinet. SYMMETRICAL STRUCTURE OF THE SCRIPTURES, OR SCRIPTURE PARALLELISM.-Since the days of Bishop Lowth the parallelisms of the Bible have formed a favorite theme of inquiry with Biblical students. That eminent scholar thought he traced in the poetical parts of Scripture a correspondence between the different clauses of the same sentence, phrase answering to phrase, and thought to thought. This correspondence of different clauses he found to be sometimes identical, sometimes gradationalthat is, the same thought carried further-and sometimes antithetic; and he applied the rules thus suggested to the explanation of the Psalms and Proverbs. Bishop Jebb extended these inquiries, and found that the principle was applicable to much of the prose of Scripture, and especially of the New Testament. More recent inquirers have gone further still. Mr. Boys, in his Tactica Sacra and Key to the Book of Psalms, shows that parallelism is found not only in sentences, but in entire paragraphs of Scripture, and even in epistles. Dr. Forbes goes still further. He thinks that the whole Bible is written under the influence of the law of parallelism; and that this law is like one of the grand generalizations of modern science-a discovery of the last importance to the student. It explains the meaning; it determines the text; it solves difficulties of history and chronology to an extent beyond what its most sanguine friends had previously dreamed. We can illustrate this principle of Scripture parallelism no better than by making an application of it, according to the parallelists, to the decalogue. The law consists, as all know, of ten commands, and is divided into two tables. It is not agreed, however, what the ten are, or how they are to be divided. The Masorets, Augustine, the Roman and Lutheran Churches, unite the first and second command-sometimes deleting the second-and divide the tenth into two, reckoning three commands in the first table and seven in the second. The division of Origen, adopted by most Protestants, places four in the first and six in the second. Nor do any of those authorities trace any close connection between the commands themselves. On the other hand, the parallelists profess to discover striking connections not only between the commands, but also important significance in the numbers of the commands. But to illustrate these points. Dr. Forbes thinks that the division of the decalogue is twofold, threefold, sevenfold, and tenfold, and that the different portions are intimately connected. His conclusions will be more readily comprehended if we give them in a tab ular form. THE SYMMETRICAL STRUCTURE OF SCRIPTURE; or, the Principles of Scripture Parallelism, Exemplified in an Analysis of the Decalogue, the Sermon on the Mount, and other Passages of the Sacred Writings. By the Rev. John Forbes, LL. D., Donaldson's Hospital, Edinburgh. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark 1854. 8vo. Pp. 364. Deed. Word. Thought. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house (1) Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife (2) Nor his man-servant (3) nor his maidservant (4) Nor his ox (5) nor his ass (6) Nor any thing that is thy neighbor's. (7.) This twofold division-first and second tables-implies, as always, antithetic relation-God and man, piety and morality; and the connection between the two. The five commands of each table imply—as five always does the imperfection of each apart from the other. The threefold division-1, 2, 3-indicates, as always, the completeness of the whole, God and man, the two extremes, and our earthly parents-to whom filial piety is dueconnecting us with both. The sevenfold enumeration of particulars in commands IV and X is instructive, seven being a perfect number, and moreover the number of the covenant. Other divisions again may be noticed: around the ingle, and seriousness instinctively spreads over every face. "The sire," laying aside his bonnet, carefully turns over "the big ha' Bible," once the property and the pride of his father. He next selects a portion-Psalm-with judicious care, and solemnly commences the evening service with, "Let us worship God;" when all unite to chant their artless notes to the wild thoughts, words, deeds, are enjoined and prohibited under both tables. The whole is made up of seventeen triplets. The series of commands to which the decalogue itself belongs-Exodus xxi, xxiii-make seven groups of ten commands each, and some have even arranged the whole of the precepts of the Jewish dispensation under seventy times seven, or four hundred and ninety in all. It will be noticed in the fourth command that parallel-warbling measures of "Dundee," or "Plaintive Martyrs," ism shows the reason for each precept: 1, 2, 3, (a, b, c,) or "Noble Elgin," the sweetest lays of Scotia. answering to 5, 6, 7, (b, c, a.) We give our readers this glimpse of the system of Scripture parallelism, but without any design of indorsing it in the extent to which it has been carried. We can not believe that any such mechanical or mathematical combination of sentences ever entered into the designs of the sacred writers. Combination, harmony, and dependence of parts there undoubtedly are in the sacred writings; but we must confess that such a studied mechanical combination as is here suggested would add nothing to the value of the sacred Scriptures in our estimation. Nay, we must confess ourself so far "behind the age" of "progressive Biblical interpretation," that we can regard it only as a fanciful chimera-affording a pleasing exercise for the imagination, and, in fine, rather innocent and useful unless pushed to an extreme. THE FAMILY ALTAR.-Every body has read the "Cotter's Saturday Night," which, if Burns had written nothing else, would have made his name immortal. The poem opens with a description of "the toil-worn cotter" returning to his home on a shortening winter's day. The weekly moil being at an end, the cattle, mired and weary, are retreating from the plow, and the "blackening trains o' crows", are speeding away to the distant woodlands. The spade, the mattock, and the hoe are laid aside, and the rest of the Scottish Sabbath is looked for hopefully. And now, rising in the distance over the moor, the lowly cot appears, sheltered by an aged tree. The children, "expectant wee things," are seen “wi' flitcherin' noise an' glee," "todlin stachet through, to meet their dad." He reaches the house; and there the cheerful fire, "blinkin bonnilie," and the clean hearthstone, his thrifty wife's smile, and the lisping infant prattling on his knee, "Do a' his weary carking cares beguile, An' mak him quite forget his labor and his toil." Then, by and by, the elder "bairns" come dropping in, one after another, from the neighboring farmers, in whose service they are engaged. The brothers and sisters meet with joy unfeigned, and kindly inquire for each other's welfare, and severally relate what they have heard and seen. The mother, "wi' her needle an' her sheers," is making old clothes look almost as well as new. The father mixes admonition. The young folks are warned to obey the command of their master and mistress, to mind their labors with a diligent hand, "to fear the Lord alway," to mind their duty in the morning and evening, to implore his counsel and assistance; and they are encouraged to hope that they shall not seek his face in vain. The cheerful supper is next introduced, crowning the simple board; "the halesome parritch," and "the sowp their only hawkie does afford," the pure and simple meal of the Scottish peasantry, and worthy the notice of pampered stomachs burning with indigestion. "Compared with these, Italian trills are tame," and have no unison with the praise of our great Creator. The sacred page is next read by "the priest-like father;" and the portion is of Abraham the friend of God," or Moses warring with Amalek's ungracious progeny, or "Job's pathetic plaint," or "rapt Isaiah's wild seraphic fire." "Perhaps the Christian volume is the theme, How guiltless blood for guilty man was shed; How he, who bore in heaven the sacred name, Had not on earth whereon to lay his head." The Scriptures having been read, they kneel to "heaven's eternal King," while "The saint, the father, and the husband prays;" and hope exultingly springs up in each member of that lovely circle, that they shall all meet again in future days; "No more to sigh, or shed the bitter tear." What a delightful picture is here presented for our eye to gaze upon! And who, we ask, can look steadily upon it, and not discern its charms, and feel its earnest appeal to his judgment and his heart? "Compared with this, how poor Religion's pride, Do we wonder that the great chief of Israel's armies should resolve that "his house should serve the Lord,” or that a king should "return to bless his household?" The tenderest associations are identified with the family altar. It is there the Christian father deepens the reproof or counsel he has given to his child. It is there he seeks to check the progress of corruption, and foster the early developments of grace. The family crosses and rods, as well as its triumphs and its joys, are all carried to that hallowed spot, and there "sanctified by the word of God and prayer." No new duty is entered upon, no old one is prosecuted, without a daily baptism at the family altar. It is there the father commends the child to God, when he is leaving the parental roof to tread the untried paths of the world, and remembers him ever after, however distant. And the family altar becomes the solace and the stay of the absent one, amid the bruises of the thorny path of life. And then when death stealthily approaches, and puts out one of the lights of their habitation, the family altar becomes the fountain whence wounded hearts can draw heavenly consolation; and "the valley of Achor," where the echo of the loved one's voice is heard. The altar in the family is like the compass in the shipits guide; like the sun in the heavens-its light; like a stream in the desert-its solace; like the lightning-rod to the building-warding off all evil. It checks vice in But the following scene crowns the whole, in its match- the family, heals breaches in the house, cherishes doless simplicity and beauty: mestic affections, sanctifies domestic bereavements, and "The cheefu' supper done," a wide circle is formed when all else fails, and every comfort is withdrawn, and |