continued to reside till about twelve months ago, and are now living at Esher, in Surrey. well known to the young by her "Sketches of Natural History," "Tales in Verse," and other productions written expressly for their use and pleasure. MARY HOWITT was born at Coleford, in Gloucestershire, where her parents were making a temporary residence; but shortly after her birth they Mary Howitt published jointly with her hus returned to their accustomed abode at Uttoxeter, band two volumes of miscellaneous poems, in in Staffordshire, where she spent her youth. The 1823; and, in 1834, she gave to the world "The beautiful Arcadian scenery of this part of Staf- Seven Temptations," a series of dramatic poems; fordshire was of a character to foster a deep love a work which, in other times, would have been of the country; and is described with great ac-alone sufficient to have made and secured a very curacy in her recent prose work, "Wood Leigh-high reputation: her dramas are full of keen perton." By her mother she is descended from an ceptions, strong and accurate delineations, and ancient Irish family, and also from Wood, the ill-powerful displays of character. She afterwards used Irish patentee, who was ruined by the selfish prepared for the press a collection of her most malignity of Dean Swift,—from whose aspersions popular ballads, a class of writing in which she his character was vindicated by Sir Isaac New-greatly excels all her contemporaries. She is also ton. A true statement of the whole affair may be seen in Ruding's "Annals of Coinage." Charles Wood, her grandfather, was the first who introduced platina into England from Jamaica, where he was assay-master. Her parents being strict members of the society of Friends, and her father being, indeed, of an old line who suffered persecution in the early days of Quakerism, her education was of an exclusive character; and her knowledge of books confined to those approved of by the most strict of her own people, till a later period than most young persons become acquainted with them. Their effect upon her mind was, consequently, so much the more vivid. Indeed, she describes her overwhelming astonishment and delight in the treasures of general and modern literature, to be like what Keats says his feelings were when a new world of poetry opened upon him, through Chapman's "Homer,"- -as to the astronomer, "When a new planet swims into his ken." Among poetry there was none which made a stronger impression than our simple old ballad, which she and a sister near her own age, and of similar taste and temperament, used to revel in, making at the same time many young attempts in epic, dramatic, and ballad poetry. In her twenty-first year she was married to William Howitt, a gentleman well calculated to encourage and promote her poetical and intellectual taste, himself a poet of considerable genius, and the author of various well-known works. We have reason to believe that her domestic life has been a singularly happy one. Mr. and Mrs. Howitt spent the year after their marriage in Staffordshire. They then removed to Nottingham, where they Mrs. Howitt is distinguished by the mild, unaffected, and conciliatory manners, for which “the people called Quakers” have always been remark. able. Her writings, too, are in keeping with her character: in all there is evidence of peace and good-will; a tender and a trusting nature; a gentle sympathy with humanity; and a deep and fervent love of all the beautiful works which the Great Hand has scattered so plentifully before those by whom they can be felt and appreciated. She has mixed but little with the world; the home-duties of wife and mother have been to her productive of more pleasant and far happier results than struggles for distinction amid crowds; she has made her reputation quietly but securely ; and has laboured successfully as well as earnestly to inculcate virtue as the noblest attribute of an English woman. If there be some of her contemporaries who have surpassed her in the higher qualities of poetry,-some who have soared higher, and others who have taken a wider range, there are none whose writings are better calculated to delight as well as inform. Her poems are always graceful and beautiful, and often vigorous; but they are essentially feminine: they afford evidence of a kindly and generous nature, as well as of a fertile imagination, and a safely-cultivated mind. She is entitled to a high place among the Poets of Great Britain; and a still higher among those of her sex by whom the intellectual rank of woman has been asserted without presump. tion, and maintained without display. 7) THE POETICAL WORKS OF MARY HOWITT. The Seven Temptations. What's done we partly may compute, But know not what's resisted. Burns. ΤΟ ALARIC A. WATTS, ESQ. THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED, BY HIS SINCERE FRIEND, THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. THE idea of this poem originated in a strong impression of the immense value of the human soul, and of all the varied modes of its trials, according to its own infinitely varied modifications, as existing in different individuals. We see the awful mass of sorrow and of crime in the world, but we know only in part-in a very small degree, the fearful weight of solicitations and impulses of passion, and the vast constraint of circumstances, that are brought into play against suffering humanity. In the luminous words of my motto, 'What's done we partly may compute, But know not what's resisted.' Thus, without sufficient reflection, we are furnished with data on which to condemn our fellow-creatures, but without sufficient grounds for their palliation and commiseration. It is necessary for the acquisition of that charity, which is the soul of Christianity, for us to descend into the depths of our own nature; to put ourselves into many imaginary and untried situations, that we may enable ourselves to form some tolerable notion how we might be affected by them; how far we might be tempted - how far deceivedhow far we might have occasion to lament the evil power of circumstances, to weep over our own weakness, and pray for the pardon of our crimes; that, having raised up this vivid perception of what we might do, suffer and become, we may apply the rule to our fellows, and cease to be astonished in some degree, at the shapes of atrocity into which some of them are transformed; and learn to bear with others as brethren, who have been tried tenfold beyond our own experience, or perhaps our strength. working out of this moral process, in this poem, may The evil agent whom I have employed for the either be regarded literally, as he is represented, according to the popular creed; or simply, as a personification of the principle of temptation, as each individual reader's own bias of sentiment may lead him to prefer: for my own part, I regard him in the latter point of view. There may be some who may not approve of the extent of crime which I have brought into action in the course of these dramas. They may deem the experiment especially dubious in a female writer. But let such reflect, that without high temptation there could be no high crime; without high crime there could be no actual and adequate representation of human nature, as we know it to exist. And therefore to have flinched in this respect, would have been to defeat the whole object of my work. Let those reflect also, that it has not been my plan to render the description of crime alluring. In that case I should have deserved, not only all the blame the timid or the rigidly righteous could heap upon me, but also that of the philosophical observer of our nature; for my view of it then would have been false and injust. But I have painted the career of crime such as it is—one uniform downward tendency to degradation and ruinous misery; and have thereby held up to young and old, to strong and weak, to |