But if the first Eve hard doom did receive When only one apple had she, What a punishment new shall be found out for you, Who tasting have robbed the whole tree!" Later they quarrelled; he wrote scurrilous verses about her; and she called him the wicked asp of Twickenham. Her fame, aside from these episodes, rests on her letters and the fact that she brought inoculation, the father of vaccination, from Turkey. Her letters, first FANNY BURNEY (MADAME D'ARBLAY) From the engraving by C. Turner after the portrait by E. W. Burney, a relative printed 1763, have ever since been rated as classics. They compare not unfavorably with those of Cowper and Lamb. Anne Letitia Barbauld (1743-1825) was a voluminous and popular poet, her first volume of verse 1773 passing through four editions in one year. Wordsworth, Rogers, and Madams D'Arblay greatly admired the following, which is perhaps the best stanza she ever wrote: "Life! we've been long together, Through pleasant and through cloudy weather; Perhaps 'twill cost a sigh, a tear. Then steal away, give little warning, Say not Good-Night, but in some brighter clime Fanny Burney (1752-1840) was the daughter of Dr. Charles Burney, author of "A History of Music " and a friend of David Garrick. In 1778 she published a novel called "Evelina," or " A Young Lady's Entrance into the World," which was so good and so successful that she was rewarded by an introduction to Dr. Johnson. It was followed 1782 by "Cecilia " " or Memoirs of an Heiress," which brought on her the misfortune of an appointment as second keeper of the robes to Queen Charlotte, a position which carried with it 200 pounds a year, a footman, a carriage, a room in the palace, and the privilege of waiting on her majesty from six in the morning until midnight. In 1791 she escaped from this gilded slavery; in 1793 married General D'Arblay, a French exile; in 1795 produced a tragedy, Edwin and Elgitha," which contains three bishops and has the distinction of being the most amusing of her works; in 1796 published another good novel, "Camilla "; and in 1814 produced a bad one called The Wanderer." Her Diary and Letters," published 1842-1846 in seven volumes, form the theme of one of Macaulay's finest essays. " Maria Edgeworth (1767-1849) was the author of "Castle Rackrent," 1800; "The Absentee," 1812, and " Ormond," 1817. Of these three novels Sir Walter Scott said: "They have gone so far to make the English familiar with the character of their gay and kind-hearted neighbors of Ireland that she may be truly said to have done more toward completing the Union perhaps than all the legislative enactments." He wrote also in high terms of her humor, tenderness, and taste. The great Russian novelist Turgenief says that her pictures of Irish squires and squireens suggested to him the idea of giving a literary form to his impressions of the parallel classes in his own equally distressful country. Her children's stories are also capital. Anna Marie Porter (1780-1832) wrote about fifty novels, all equally popular in her day and equally unread in ours; her sister, Jane Porter (1776-1850), produced two romances, "Thaddeus of Warsaw" and "Scottish Chiefs," which are still read, though they do not deserve to be. The former delighted Kosciuszko and the latter won the honor of being proscribed by Napoleon. Ann Taylor (1782-1866) and her sister Jane (1783-1824) wrote many famous hymns and children's verses. Of the latter the most familiar are "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," and "My Mother." One stanza of the latter will show the charm of their writing: "Who ran to help me when I fell, Mary Russell Mitford (1787-1855) was educated through a 20,000 pound lottery prize won by her father, a selfish and patientless physician, and spent most of her life in supporting him by her pen. Her best book, "Our Village," is so fresh, finished, full of delicate humor, and bumanized by simple pathos that it won the approval of the best critics and has had a crowd of imitators both in England and America. Mrs. Felicia D. Hemans, born Brown (1793-1835), wrote some pretentious poems and plays now forgotten and several short poems which still keep her memory green. A few citations from the latter will show the quality of her work and fame: "The stately homes of England,- -The Homes of England. "The breaking waves dashed high -Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers. "The boy stood on the burning deck." "Leaves have their time to fall, -Casabianca. And flowers to wither at the North-wind's breath, Thou hast all seasons for thy own, O Death! -The Hour of Death. Agnes Strickland (1796-1874), with the aid of her sister Elizabeth (1794-1875), produced 1840-1848 her "Lives of the Queens of England" in twelve volumes. This was followed 1850-1859 by "Lives of the Queens of Scotland" in eight volumes. Both works, though uncritical and unreliable, contain original material, are skillfully written, and have been widely read. Harriet Martineau (1802-1876) began to write to relieve the tedium caused by deafness, and continued it as a means of support. Her publications include such diverse subjects as religion, political economy, travel in America, romances, household manuals, a " History |