Page:Letters of Life.djvu/341

Rh with, some intermingling of fiction. The scene is among the wild and beautiful regions of my native place; and the object of its construction was to embalm the memory and virtues of an ancient lady, my first and most loved benefactress. Its contents, though comparatively diffuse, were intended to be subsidiary to this prompting theme. It was meant to be an offering of gratitude to her whose influence, like a golden thread, had run through the whole woof of my life. Her relatives, as if by a heritable affection, continued to brighten its course and coloring; and, through their deeds of kindness, she, being dead, yet spake. Truly and devoutly would I apostrophize her, whose hallowed hand wrought among the elements of my being:

6 "Poems." This volume of two hundred and twenty-eight pages, without other distinctive title, was published in Boston, in a very neat style, by Mr. Samuel G. Goodrich, an early friend, who afterwards, under the sobriquet of Peter Parley, was to earn so extensive a literary fame, first from young readers, and eventually from all the people. The book was a collection of miscellaneous poems, many of which had already appeared in various periodicals. It was