L. I. JAMES, ANNIE P., Was born in Salem, Massachusetts, on the 22d of December, 1825. Daughter of Mr. Joshua Safford, of that city, she was carefully educated by her parents. When less than ten years of age she commenced a journal, which she continued till her death; and even at that early age she evinced a mind of unusual capacity and depth, and a lovely disposition. In September, 1842, Miss Safford became a member of the Baptist Church in Salem, of which she afterwards was so bright an ornament. From the time of her first union with the church she was deeply interested in the missionary cause, and was elected Corresponding Secretary of the Boardman Missionary Society." In the early part of 1847, Dr. Sexton James, of Philadelphia, about to become a missionary to China, visited Salem and was introduced to Miss Safford. The intimacy ended in a marriage, which took place in October of the same year, and in November they set sail for China. They arrived at Hong-kong on the 25th of March, 1848, and a few days after went on a visit to Canton, as there was no prospect of their having an opportunity to proceed to Shanghai, their place of destination, for some weeks. On the 13th of April, Dr. and Mrs. James embarked on board the schooner "Paradox" to return to Hong-kong, and on the 15th, just as they came in sight of the port, a sudden squall came up. The schooner was thrown on her side and sunk almost instantly. Dr. James and his wife were in their cabin, and, it is supposed, were drowned immediately. Their bodies were never recovered. J. JOAN, THE POPESS, ACCORDING to a story long believed but now acknowledged to be a fiction, was a woman who, for a time, held the keys of St. Peter, and was the acknowledged head of the Roman hierarchy. The legend says that she was a native of Metz. Her name was Gilberta, or Agnes; she fell in love with an Englishman at Fulda, went to travel with him, studied at Athens, and visited Rome. Continuing to conceal her sex, she took the name of Johannes Angelina, and rose, by her talents, from the station of a notary to the papal chair under the name of John VIII. This was between the years 854-6. She governed well, but, having become pregnant by a servant, or, as some say, by a cardinal, she was delivered in a solemn procession, and died on the spot, near the Coliseum, which place the popes are said to have avoided ever after in their processions. Such is the fable, which we give solely because it is found in so many authors, though it is unworthy of credit. Two Protestants, learned and impartial men, (Blondell and Bayle,) concur in their conclusion that the story of Pope Joan is a baseless fiction. LLANGOLLEN, THE LADIES OF, THAT happiness is to be sought in the obvions paths of that state of life in which it has pleased God to place us, that the largest heart and most excited heroism of virtue may find scope in the duties that lie nearest to us, are truths that have been demonstrated for ages. But there is a sort of Quixotism in some minds that spurns the condition allotted by Providence. These people try to "go farther" than the rest of the world, and, it must be added, they invariably "fare worse." Lady Eleanor Butler was born in Dublin, 1761. While in her cradle she had the misfortune to lose both her parents, and from her earliest recollection she formed a tender intimacy with Miss Ponsonby, their imaginations being incited by the circumstances - that they were born in Dublin on the same day of the year, and both lost their parents at the same epoch. It was easy for two romantic, warm-hearted girls, to persuade themselves that they were born for each other, and that they would renounce all other ties, and fly to a solitude where friendship was to supply the charm for every care. Thus agreeing together, they fled secretly from Ireland, and, having heard of the romantic beauties of Wales, they went to Llangollen, took a cottage beautifully situated near the top of a mountain, and commenced their life of friendship. However, their guardians having discovered their retreat, compelled them to return to Dublin. The young ladies were obliged to submit, but declared that on coming of age they would return to Llangollen; which they did. Miss Ponsonby was not rich, but Lady Eleanor possessed considerable property. She purchased the cottage, and built upon its site an elegant residence, replete with every comfort and luxury they desired. Here they actually dwelt for the remainder of their lives, which were lengthened to old age. They were visited by many strangers, and enjoyed such society, though professing to love solitude. As they grew old and the romance of the situation faded, their latest visitors represent them as insipid old women, eagerly listening to news of the world, and seeming to derive their principal amusement from superintending the farm. Ponsonby, unfortunately, survived her friend for many tedious years. The blank that remained to her may be imagined. She died about 1830; the exact date we have not ascertained. LEE, MARY ELIZABETH, A WRITER of prose and verse, was born at Charleston, South Carolina, on the 23d March, 1813. She belonged to an old family which had always maintained a highly respectable rank in society. Mary at a very early period evinced the possession of a delicate and sensitive organization with large promise of talent. She was fortunate in early literary associations, which, in a considerable degree, were made to supply the want of a 66 close and methodical education. She soon exhi- | country. Her vein was at once direct and delibited an eager appetite for books. For these she cate; simple, unaffected, and truthful, yet full of abandoned the usual amusements of childhood. grace, sweetness, and beauty. Her tone was grave, Indeed, she never entertained them. The toy and mostly, almost to solemnity, yet relieved and the doll, so essential to juvenile happiness, contri- warmed by a fancy that, if never frolicsome, was buted at no period to hers. Her pleasures were at least usually cheerful. With her increasing reputation, her verses soon made their way into most of the popular periodicals of the day. Several of her pieces fastened themselves upon the memory, and became grateful to the hearts, of her readers. Their unobtrusive sweetness, their grave delicacy, the propriety of their sentiments, and uniform gentleness and purity of tone, beguiled those sympathies which the delicate constitution of her genius would never have sought to coerce. "The Lone Star," Correggio's Holy Family," "The Hour of Death," "The Deathbed of Prince Henry," "The Blind Negro Communicant," and many other pieces, in this manner stole silently upon the popular affections and served to extend her reputation. Her practice in verse, as is commonly the case, preceded her exercises in prose. At a later day she became as diligent in the latter as in the former province. Essays, sketches, tales, all proceeded rapidly from her pen, and were eagerly read in the annuals and magazines into which they found their way. Sometimes she ventured upon a critical paper for the reviews, and, through this medium she has given us some just and thoughtful criticisms upon foreign writers. One volume, designed by her for the young, entitled "Social Evenings, or Historical Tales," was published by the Massachusetts School Library Association, and is stated to be one of the most popular of the collection. Its characteristics are simplicity, good sense, accuracy of statement, and compactness of detail, all carefully chosen and grouped in accordance with the leading purpose of the publication. At a later period in life her labours were continued amidst great suffering, and with a constant apprehension of a fatal termination. Her constitution, always delicate, was gradually yielding to her complaint, which was assisted in its progress by the intense activity of her mind. But this very activity, which helped her foe, was her principal solace. Of the tenacity with which she held to her employments we may form some notion from a single fact. Her right hand having become paralyzed, she transferred the pen to the left, and acquired a new style of penmanship, which, entirely different from that which she wrote before, is yet singularly uniform, and even spirited and graceful. She bore her afflictions with a wonderful fortitude, a sweet, becoming cheerfulness, and a still unwearied exercise of her mental faculties, all concurring to illustrate the pure and noble Christian spirit, the cultivation of which had been carefully blended with that of her intellectual and moral nature. After years of suffering, she expired peacefully and hopefully in the arms of her family, on the 23d of September, 1849, at the early age of thirty-six. A selection from her poetical writings has recently been made and published in Charleston by Messrs Walker and Richards in a beautiful duodecimo of 224 pages. derived wholly from reading, and the conversation of those whose attachment to letters was decided. In this way she added daily to her intellectual resources, and stimulated, even to excess, the sole desire of her mind. Her memory was one of remarkable capacity, and she retained without an effort whatever commended itself to her imagination. She thus laid in rare stores for thought, which, as she advanced to maturity, were never left unemployed. Her faculty for the acquisition of languages, with or without a tutor, was singularly large; and, with a memory so retentive as that which she possessed, it was never exercised in vain. Until the age of ten, her education was entirely carried on at home. When, at this period, it was deemed advisable to enlarge her studies in accordance with the increasing developments of her mind, and she was sent to school, its exercises and excitements were found to prey upon her delicate constitution. The very emulation which such an institution almost necessarily provokes in an ardent and eager nature, was injurious to hers. Her health became impaired, and it was found necessary when she was but twelve years of age to withdraw her once more to the placid sphere of domestic study. Here, then, and almost at this early period, she began the education of herself that most valuable of all kinds of education, and the only one which makes school education of value. In the securities of home she pursued her voluntary tasks with equal industry and pleasure. Her application was sleepless, her acquisitions surprising. She succeeded in obtaining a considerable mastery over the French, Italian, and German languages, while perfecting herself by constant attention in all the graces of her own. In these exercises she naturally became a contributor to the periodical literature of the A tolerable portrait prefaces this volume, which has been edited, with a touching and graceful memoir, by her friend and pastor, the Rev. S. Gilman, D. D. LÉZARDIÈRE, MADEMOISELLE, WAS a native of France. Without any encouragement she manifested an invincible taste for historical researches. In this she met with great opposition from her family. At a period when France, as a nation, was given up to most frivolous pursuits, when the court was occupied entirely by futile pleasures, to say no worse, it seemed monstrous, and inadmissible to commonplace people, that a young girl should give up the world, and the usual routine of girlish life, to devote herself to musty manuscripts and severe study. Her perseverance, however, removed all obstacles, and she was at last indulged by her parents with the means of carrying out her views. She devoted the best years of her youth to the most laborious literary pursuits; living in solitude, unknown by the public, but encouraged by the approbation and sympathy of a few scientific men, among whom her principal friend was Malesherbes, the heroic advocate of Louis XVI. After twenty-five years of careful research, her work was printed anonymously, under the title of "Theory of the Political Laws of the French Monarchy." Alas! the book was printed in 1790, when the very word monarchy was an abomination. It was published after the Revolution, but the time was past; political science had also undergone a revolution, and the labours of a lifetime were lost. Augustin Thierry, unquestionably the best judge in the world of the subject of Mademoiselle Lézardière, since his own writings have formed an epoch in the manner of studying and treating such researches, gives her almost the preference over all the learned men who were her predecessors in this study. He speaks highly of her erudition and philosophic mode of reasoning; her theory he completely destroys, as he does those of all the foregoing savants, not excepting the great Montesquieu. After refuting her errors, he says,— "We must admit, however, that the theory of Mademoiselle Lézardière is consistent, ingenious, and often full of sagacity. She appears gifted with remarkable powers of analysis. She seeks out and sets forth all the important problems, and never leaves them till she has exhausted every text that bears upon them. In a word, there is not here, as in the preceding systems, an aimless scattering of the primitive elements of our history; they are all recognised and admitted; and it is by an almost insensible inflection that the author has bent them to her own system. * * If her book had appeared at the right time, perhaps it would have divided public opinion and have founded a sect, like the system of Mably; perhaps, as it is more complete, more profound, and nearer the originals, it would have gained the suffrage of the deepest thinkers. In reality the two theories are much alike: the same element is in the book of Abe Mably, but in that of Mademoi selle Lézardière it is more strongly marked, and, above all, more learnedly argued." The science of political history is so difficult, and demands so much learning, that few have written sagaciously upon it, and we have, therefore, given Mademoiselle Lézardière the honourable testimony of Thierry, which her merit had well earned. M. MACOMBER, ELEANOR, Was born in 1801, at Lake Pleasant, Hamilton County, New York. Here her childhood and youth were passed until she removed to Albany, where she first formed that determination to which she adhered so nobly through all obstacles - of devoting her life to Him who had given up His for us. In 1830 she was sent out by the Missionary Board of the Baptist denomination as teacher among the Ojibwas at Sault de Ste Marie, in Michigan. Here she continued for nearly four years, when, her health failing, she returned to her friends. In 1836 she connected herself with the Karen mission, Burmah, and went out to Maulmain in the latter part of the same year. After her arrival she was stationed at Dong-Yahn, about thirty-five miles from Maulmain. Here she lived and laboured almost alone, doing the great work which was assigned her. In the midst of discouragements she fainted not, but performed labours and endured afflictions almost incredible. When she arrived at the scene of her future labours, she found vice and sin reigning triumphant. On every hand intemperance and sensuality were observable. She immediately commenced in their midst the worship of God. On the Sabbath the people were drawn together to hear the story of the cross, and during the week her house was thrown open for morning and evening prayers. By her perseverance she soon collected a small school, and, in less than a year, a church of natives, numbering more than twenty persons, was formed and placed under the care of the Rev. Mr. Stephens. Intemperance, sensuality, and other vices gradually disappeared, and the Christian virtues took their place. The idea of a weak, friendless, and lone woman trusting herself among a drunken and sensual people, and there, with no husband, father, or brother, establishing public worship, opening her house for prayer and praise, and gathering schools in the midst of wild and unlettered natives, is one full of moral grandeur. Intelligent, active, and laborious, Miss Macomber was not content with teaching all who came to her; she went out to the surrounding tribes, attended only by one or two converts, and, fording rivers, crossing ravines, climbing high hills and mountains, she everywhere carried the doctrines of salvation. Even the heathen heart was touched by this spectacle, and this estimable woman was respected and loved by those who hated the Gospel she taught. Miss Macomber died April 16th, 1840, of the jungle fever, at. Maulmain, where she had been carried for the purpose of obtaining medical aid. Her death was deeply lamented by the natives; | manity, to prevent the poor people on her estates M'CREA, JANE, DAUGHTER of James M'Crea, an Episcopal clergyman of New Jersey, was residing in 1777, with her brother, near Fort Edward, on the western bank of the Hudson. She was betrothed to a young royalist named David Jones, a captain in Burgoyne's army. He sent a number of Indians with a letter to her, urging her to place herself under their escort and to come to him. Fearful of some mischance, Captain Jones despatched another party of Indians on the same errand. These two bands meeting, began to dispute about the reward that was to be divided between them; violent words followed, and, in the midst of the quarrel, one of the chiefs shot Miss M'Crea. She fell immediately, and the Indian scalped her; and then, fearful of pursuit, they all fled. Her brother, hearing of his sister's fate, came and buried the body. Captain Jones did not long survive this nad disaster. MATILDA, QUEEN of Henry I. of England, daughter of Malcolm Canmore, king of Scotland. See her biography in Second Era, page 131. MARTIN, MRS. BELL, WAS daughter of the rich Mr. Martin, of Connemara, Ireland. She inherited a very large landed property in that country. Miss Martin married her cousin, whose name was Bell; he took her family name by act of Parliament. Mrs. Bell Martin was an authoress of some repute. She wrote "Julia Howard," a novel of considerable merit, and also several works in the French language. But she was more eminent for her virtues than her genius. During the troublous times of the famine in Ireland, Mrs. Bell Martin attempted, in the spirit of true hu from suffering the horrible privations endured by the labourers in general. Her tenants amounted to as many as twenty thousand, and her lands to over two hundred thousand acres. She caused important improvements to be made, in order to give work and wages to the people, till her own means became nearly exhausted. Obliged to retrench her expenditures, she left her own country to travel in America and learn the manner of living in a republic where all are in comfort. She was taken ill on the voyage, and died ten days after reaching New York, near the close of 1850. MAURY, MRS., Or Liverpool, England, wrote two works on the United States, "The English Woman in America," and "The Statesmen of America." We have had such frequent occasions to resent the want of candour in British tourists; we have so fretted and winced at their merited and unmerited sneers, that when we find one willing to love us and our faults, gratitude and patriotism arise to disarm criticism. We are truly obliged to Mrs. Maury for her enthusiasm; and we say, not ungraciously but deprecatingly, that too much praise is the next thing to too much blame, as it spirits up our ill-wishers to question our veritable deserts. Setting aside this engouement for every thing American, Mrs. Maury is an agreeable, ingenious writer; some of her sketches of insignificant people are painted with a vigour and animation that would do credit to certain of the great literary reputations of the day. Mrs. Maury's enthusiasm for every thing in the New World was no doubt to be attributed, in part, to the circumstance that Mr. Maury was an American by birth. His native State was Virginia, and hither the family came in 1848; Mrs. Maury anticipating much happiness in this, her adopted country. But she was not to realize her hopes here; she died in a few months after her settlement on their estate in Virginia. MAYO, ABIGAIL, WIFE of Colonel John Mayo, of Richmond, Virginia, did much for the cause of female education in that city and state. Gifted with a superior mind and great moral excellence, she understood, intuitively, as it were, the good influence that cultivated intellect gives the sex. There were no Female Seminaries then at the South; those who wished to give their daughters the advantages of education were obliged to send them from home, or keep a governess in their own family. Mrs. Mayo resolved to remedy this; she established a school, placing at its head Mrs. Broome, niece of Lord Nugent, and cousin of Lord Byron, an English lady, who, leaving Canada for the United States, had been befriended by Mrs. Mayo. The Seminary was successful. Two of Mrs. Mayo's daughters, one now the wife of General Scott, the other of Dr. R. H. Cabell, of Richmond, were among the accomplished pupils educated in this school. The good effect of the experiment has never been lost. Richmond has since been famed for its excellent Female Seminaries. MIRBEL, LEZINSKA RUE DE, Was born at Paris, daughter of a commissary of the marine. She belonged to a family, every branch of which was opulent, except her own. Nature had endowed her, however, with a firmness of character and a loftiness of spirit which rendered poverty honourable, as, instead of degrading, it spurred her to those exertions which have given her name a European celebrity. She determined, at a very early age, to accomplish an object which she set before herself; that was, to become independent by her own efforts, and to supply the wants of her mother and her young brother. After long and due consideration, she determined upon applying herself to miniature painting, which she felt was her particular vocation. She was then eighteen, and remarkable for beauty and intelligence. Having entered herself as a student with Augustin, she regulated her hours upon the strictest rules of industry and method; every moment had its employment; a time was allotted to the necessary practice of her art; a time to reading, and a time to needle-work. Up at four o'clock in the morning, she was always ready and never hurried; the evening she devoted to society, and the day to the most persevering labours. Her youthful spirit knew no languor, either moral or physical. Filling her place gracefully in the drawing-room, in the studio she was the most severe and indefatigable of students. Preparing by earnest and fatiguing application her distant future success "For sluggard's brows the laurel never grows Renown is not the child of indolent repose." The besetting sin of miniature painters is want of skill in drawing; Augustin could teach her the way of mixing and laying on colours, and the little mysteries of the trade; but this was not art, it was not drawing. A friend of her family, M. Belloc, a very distinguished connoisseur, advised her to withdraw from the school of Augustin, and to give herself up exclusively and strenuously to the study of drawing. She took this judicious advice, and under his friendly direction applied herself to copy the greatest masters of her special branch of art. Her talent became rapidly developed, and she soon acquired a distinguished reputation. After her marriage with M. de Mirbel, she continued her efforts for improvement, which were attended by fame, fortune, and success. While the merit of her miniatures was acknowledged all over Europe, her charming manners and intelligent mind rendered her house the resort of the most distinguished literary and artistic personages of the day. She died in September, 1849, deeply regretted by all who could estimate her genius and worth. MOSEBY, MARY WEBSTER, WIFE of John G. Moseby, Esq., of Richmond, Virginia, was gifted with poetic genius of no ordinary power. Her only published work was of undoubted merit, Pocahontas, a Legend; with Historical and Traditional Notes;" issued in 1840. She also wrote for periodicals, and was highly esteemed for her virtues and literary accomplishments. Deeply versed in the holy Scriptures, and giving much time to Biblical researches, she was always at home on religious topics; and fervent piety was the loveliest attribute of her genius. Her father was Mr. Robert Pleasants, and she was connected by blood with the Randolph family. Mrs. Moseby died in Richmond city in 1844, aged fifty-two. N. NORDENFLYCHT, MADAME, They spread her WAS a Sweedish writer of popular songs, which, in her day, gained her great celebrity. She also wrote a volume of elegies and epistles, remarkable for their truth and tenderness. reputation far beyond her own country; Gesner, Haller, and Holberg, have each celebrated her talents. She had retired from the world on the loss of her husband, and in this retirement wrote her sweet verses. This drew intellectual people to her house, and very soon her drawing-room was the focus of the first literary society formed in Sweden; and this habit of meeting was continued weekly after the death of Madame Nordenflycht, under the classical title of "Utile Dulci." 0. ORLEANS, MARIE D' WAS the third daughter of Louis Philippe, the king of the French. Her genius was the pride of her family, and her early death was a sore affliction, for she possessed great loveliness of character, and her piety and intelligence made her truly beloved and respected. Early manifesting artistic talent, and having made good proficiency in drawing and painting, she essayed her powers as a sculptor. Several of her productions in marble won the critical commendation of the best judges, not over-willing to concede this laurel to a woman, even though a king's daughter. She finally determined to attempt a work which would be associated with the most wonderful epoch of French history, and one of the most noble heroines the world has ever produced. This was the figure of Joan of Arc, completed in 1836, which places the artist at the head of the French sculptors. It may very confidently be predicted that, in future years, when the late political agitations and mutations in the Orleans family will occupy an unregarded page of general history, when the Ulyssean craft of the father and the "regal alliance" of the sons will be of no interest to mankind, then the immortal fruits of the genius of this unassuming young woman will cast a lustre over the name of Orleans. In the fourteenth and beginning of the fifteenth centuries, amidst the disgusting barbarities, the perfidious warfare, the licentiousness, that form the annals of that most disgraceful period of |