Page:Eminent women of the age.djvu/99

Rh LYDIA H. SIGODRNEY.

BY REV. B. B. HUNTINGTON.

Were any intelligent American citizen now asked to name the American woman, who, for a quarter of a century before 1855, held a higher place in the respect and affections of the American people than any other woman of the times had secured, it can hardly be questioned that the prompt reply would be, Mks. Ltdia Huntley Sigoubney.

And this would be the answer, not simply on the ground of her varied and extensive learning ; nor on that of her acknowledged poetic gifts; nor on that of her voluminous contributions to our current literature, both in prose and verse ; but rather, because with these gifts and this success, she had with singular kindliness of heart made her very life- work itself a constant source of blessing and joy to others. Her very goodness had made her great. Her genial good- will had given her power. Her loving friendliness had mado herself and her name everywhere a charm. So that, granted that other women could be named, more gifted in some en- dowments, more learned in certain branches, and even moro ably represented in the literature of the times ; still, no one of them, by universal consent, hud succeeded in winning so largely the esteem and admiration of her age.

It is of this woman that we need not hesitate to write, when we would make up our list of the representative women of our t'mes. She was a woman so rare, we nbed not ^esi-