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26

No. III.

MRS. BARBAULD.

We take the liberty of transcribing a memoir of this excellent and justly-celebrated woman, prefixed to the exceedingly interesting edition of her works (in two volumes, octavo), recently published by her amiable and accomplished niece, Miss Lucy Aikin; so well qualified, not less by congeniality of feeling and talent, than by consanguinity and intimate knowledge of the subject, to be the biographer of her venerable and beloved relation.

"Anna Lætitia Barbauld, a name long dear to the admirers of genius and the lovers of virtue, was born at the village of Kibworth Harcourt, in Leicestershire, on June 20th, 1743, the eldest child and only daughter of John Aikin, D.D., and Jane his wife, daughter of the Rev. John Jennings of Kibworth, and descended by her mother from the ancient family of Wingate, of Harlington, in Bedfordshire.

"That quickness of apprehension by which she was eminently distinguished, manifested itself from her earliest infancy. Her mother thus writes respecting her in a letter which is still preserved: I once indeed knew a little girl who was as eager to learn as her instructors could be to teach her, and who, at two years old, could read sentences and little stories in her wise book, roundly, without spelling, and in half a year more could read as well as most women; but I never knew such another, and I believe never shall.'

"Her education was entirely domestic, and principally conducted by her excellent mother, a lady whose manners were polished by the early introduction to good company, which her family connexions had procured her; whilst her mind had been cultivated and her principles formed, partly by the in

structions of religious and enlightened parents, partly by the society of the celebrated Dr. Doddridge, who was for some years domesticated under her parental roof.

"In the middle of the last century a strong prejudice still existed against imparting to females any tincture of classical learning; and the father of Miss Aikin, proud as he justly was of her uncommon capacity, long refused to gratify her earnest desire of being initiated in this kind of knowledge. At length, however, she in some degree overcame his scruples; and with his assistance she enabled herself to read the Latin authors with pleasure and advantage; nor did she rest satisfied without gaining some acquiantance with the Greek.

"The obscure village of Kibworth was unable to afford her a single suitable companion of her own sex: her brother, the late Dr. Aikin, was more than three years her junior; and as her father was at this period the master of a school for boys, it might have been apprehended that conformity of pursuits, as well as age, would tend too nearly to assimilate her with the youth of the ruder sex by whom she found herself encompassed. But maternal vigilance effectually obviated this danger, by instilling into her a double portion of bashfulness and maidenly reserve; and she was accustomed to ascribe an uneasy sense of constraint in mixed society, which she could never entirely shake off, to the strictness and seclusion in which it had thus become her fate to be educated. Her recollections of childhood and early youth were, in fact, not associated with much of the pleasure and gaiety usually attendant upon that period of life: but it must be regarded as a circumstance favorable, rather than otherwise, to the unfolding of her genius, to have been thus left to find, or make in solitude her own objects of interest and pursuit. The love of rural nature sunk deep into her heart; her vivid fancy exerted itself to colour, to animate, and to diversify all the objects which surrounded her: the few but choice authors of her father's library, which she read and re-read, had leisure to make their full impression, — to mould her sentiments, and to form her taste; the spirit of devotion,

early inculcated upon her as a duty, opened to her, by degrees, an exhaustless source of tender and sublime delight; and while yet a child, she was surprised to find herself a poet.

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"Just at the period when longer seclusion might have proved seriously injurious to her spirits, an invitation given to her learned and exemplary father to undertake the office of classical tutor in a highly respectable dissenting academy at Warrington, in Lancashire, was the fortunate means of transplanting her to a more varied and animating scene. This removal took place in 1758, when Miss Aikin had just attained the age of fifteen; and the fifteen succeeding years passed by her at Warrington comprehended probably the happiest, as well as the most brilliant portion of her existence. She was at this time possessed of great beauty, distinct traces of which she retained to the latest period of life. Her person was slender, her complexion exquisitely fair, with the bloom of perfect health; her features were regular and elegant, and her dark blue eyes beamed with the light of wit and fancy.

"A solitary education had not produced on her its most frequent ill effects, pride and self-importance: the reserve of her manners proceeded solely from bashfulness, for her temper inclined her strongly to friendship and to social pleasures; and her active imagination, which represented all objects tinged with hues 'unborrowed of the sun,' served as a charm against that disgust with common characters and daily incidents, which so frequently renders the conscious possessor of superior talents at once unamiable and unhappy. Nor was she now in want of congenial associates. Warrington academy included among its tutors names eminent both in science and in literature: with several of these, and especially with Dr. Priestley and Dr. Enfield and their families, she formed sincere and lasting friendships. The elder and more accomplished among the students composed an agreeable part of the same society; and its animation was increased by a mixture of young ladies, either residents in

the town or occasional visitors, several of whom were equally distinguished for personal charms, for amiable manners, and cultivated minds. The rising institution, which flourished for several years in high reputation, diffused a classic air over all connected with it. Miss Aikin, as was natural, took a warm interest in its success; and no academic has ever celebrated his alma mater in nobler strains, or with a more filial affection, than she has manifested in that portion of her early and beautiful poem, The Invitation, where her theme is this nursery of men for future years.'

"About the close of the year 1771, her brother, after several years of absence, returned to establish himself in his profession at Warrington; an event equally welcome to her feelings, and propitious to her literary progress. In him she possessed a friend with discernment to recognise the stamp of genius in her productions and anticipate their fame, combined with zeal and courage sufficient to vanquish her reluctance to appear before the public in the character of an author. By his persuasion and assistance her poems were selected, revised, and arranged for publication: and when all these, preparations were completed, finding that she still hesitated and lingered, -like the parent bird who pushes off its young to their first flight, he procured the paper, and set the press to work on his own authority. The result more than justified his confidence of her success: four editions of the work (the first in 4to. the succeeding ones in 8vo.), were called for within the year of publication, 1773; compliments and congratulations poured in from all quarters; and even the periodical critics greeted her Muse with nearly unmixed applause.

"She was not permitted to repose upon her laurels: her brother, who possessed all the activity and spirit of literary enterprise in which she was deficient, now urged her to collect her prose pieces, and to join him in forming a small volume, which appeared, also in the year 1773, under the title of Miscellaneous Pieces, in Prose, by J. and A. L. Aikin.' These likewise met with much notice and admiration, and have been several times reprinted. The authors

did not think proper to distinguish their respective contributions, and several of the pieces have been generally misappropriated. The fragment of Sir Bertrand in particular, though alien from the character of that brilliant and airy imagination which was never conversant with terror, and rarely with pity, has been repeatedly ascribed to Mrs. Barbauld, even in print.

"Having thus laid the foundation of a lasting reputation in literature, Miss Aikin might have been expected to proceed with vigor in rearing the superstructure; and the world awaited with impatience the result of her further efforts.

But an event, the most important of her life, was about to sub

ject her to new influence, new duties, — to alter her station, her course of life, and to modify even the bent of her mind. This event was her marriage, which took place in May 1774.

"The Rev. Rochemont Barbauld, whom she honoured with her hand, was descended from a family of French protestants. During the persecutions of Louis XIV., his grandfather, then a boy, was carried on board a ship inclosed in a cask, and conveyed to England. Here he settled, and had a son who became a clergyman of the Establishment, and on the marriage of one of the daughters of George II. to the elector of Hesse, was appointed her chaplain, and attended her to Cassel. At this place his son Rochemont was born and passed his childhood: on the breaking up of the household of the electress he spent a year at Paris, and then accompanied his father to England, who destined him for the church, but, somewhat unadvisedly, sent him for previous instruction to the dissenting seminary of Warrington. The principles which he here imbibed, impelled him to renounce all his expectations from the Establishment; though by such a renunciation, which threw him upon the world without a profession and without fortune, he raised obstacles which might well have appeared insuperable, to the completion of that union on which he had long rested his fondest hopes of earthly felicity. Whilst the prospects of the young couple were still full of uncertainty, some distinguished persons,

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