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༢༧༡5) (Ę

84-24-80 surg

PREFACE.

As knowledge of an author, and the circumstances under which he writes, not unfrequently imparts interest to his productions, it is deemed requisite that soms account of the writer of these Poems should be giv. en. In appearing before the public, it is not with the expectation of ranking with those recent poetic writers whose celebrity is almost unrivaled; neither does she expect to abide the rigid criticism of this refined age; nor to afford entertainment to those who can be gratifyed with nothing but what is arrayed in the richest and most dazzling garb of literature.

This preface is not designed to commend the Poems to which it is prefixed. Leaving the reader to judge of their merit, it is presumed that those who love, through the medium of verse, to contemplate the inspiriting theines of religion, will not be unedifyed. And if her readers reap but half the satisfaction in their perusal, that she has enjoyed in their production, her labor will not be lost and she will be happy in reflecting that she has been in any degree useful to others, deprived as she is, in a great measure, of one of the most important faculties for bene, fitting either herself or her fellows.

'The authoress is one of those unfortunate persons who are cut off from all the privileges and enjoyments afforded by the sight of the eye. Her native place is New Haven, Vermont, and the only daughter of Robert and Diana GILES. She became totally blind at the age of fourteen, when the mind just began to taste the sweats of science,

and has ever since been reduced to all the disadvantages incident to such a condition. How much do such persons deserve our sympathy, and yet we can never fully sympa. thize with them till, by a similar misfortune, we are taught the value of sight. How pathetic is the lamentation of the blind Poet, Milton:

Thus with the year

"Seasons return; but not to me returns
Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn,
Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose,
Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine,
But cloud instead, and everduring dark
Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men
Cut off, and for the book of Knowledge fair
Presented with a universal blank

Of natures' works, to me expunged and rased,
And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out,"

Few indeed are the earthly enjoyments of such, com. pared with those blessed with the inestimable boon of vision. And what but the possession of spiritual riches can produce an acquiesence of heart to so great a calamity?

"Religion gives even affliction a grace,

And reconciles man to his lot."

Of this she became the happy recipient at the age of sixteen, and was baptised at the age of twenty-two into the fellowship of the Baptist Church in Dexter, Wash. tenaw County, Michigan, by Elder W. A. Bronson, of which she was an ornament. Her example is a practical comment on the intrinsic virtues of religion; and her happiness derived from it evinced its capability of con.

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