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76   LYDIA HUNTLEY SIGOURNEY.

SONG.

OH, moon of flowers! sweet moon of flowers,
Why dost thou mind me of the hours
Which flew so softly on that night,
When last I say and felt thy light?

Oh, moon of flowers! thou moon of flowers,
Would thou couldst give me back those hours,
Since which a dull cold year has fled,
Or show me those with whom they sped!

Oh, moon of flowers! oh, moon of flowers!
In scenes afar were past those hours,
Which still with fond regret I see,
And wish my heart could change like thee!

LYDIA HUNTLEY SIGOURNEY.

MRS. SIGOURNEY, whose maiden name was Huntley, was born in Norwich, Connecticut, in 1797.  She was the only child of pious parents, who early instilled into her mind principles of religion, and habits of industry.  Her precocity was remarkable; at three she read with a distinct and perfect enunciation; and at eight wrote verses which were marked by rhythmical accuracy, more than by poetic impulse; at nine, she commenced a fictitious work, in the epistolary style; and at eleven, began a regular journal.  Her diffidence was as great as her love for the pen; for, having no lock or key in her possession, she carefully hid all her effusions under huge piles of books, with a nervous fear, amounting to shame, lest they should be discovered.  One point in her childish character—so strong as to be work recording—was an ardent love and reverence for the aged, and an extreme tenderness toward animals.  At school she was distinguished for the ease with which she acquired knowledge, and for her unceasing devotion to study.  Books, however,


LYDIA HUNTLEY SIGOURNEY.  77

did not engross her attention to the exclusion of other duties, for she loved domestic employments; and was as industrious in her attention to them, as in her favourite studies.  She was particularly fond of spinning on the great wheel, and constructed in this way many fabrics of enduring benefit to the family; among others, a whole suit of broadcloth for her father, which he long wore with peculiar satisfaction.  To those who have read Mrs. Sigourney's most admirable and instructive Letters to Young Ladies, it will be pleasant to learn, that in her own case, percept and practice, as it regards diligence in domestic life, were not divided.  Her prevailing desire from childhood was to be fitted for the task of a teacher.  Beginning with two young ladies as day-scholars, in her own room, she afterward shared with a dear friend the charge of a large school, two miles from her home.  In summer time she was accustomed to walk this distance, morning and evening; the exercise giving her a perpetual elasticity of spirits, and vigour of health.  Her chief object in teaching now as to assist her parents, whose income was small, and to add various comforts to their home and persons, which their own prudence denied.  That this filial desire might be better accomplished, her kind friend, Daniel Wadsworth, Esq., of Hartford, obtained for her, in that city, a school after her own heart, over which she presided for five years.  To this same benevolent friend she was indebted for for first encouragement her literary efforts received; and through his persuasions she published her first volume, called Moral Pieces in Prose and Verse, being then only eighteen.  At twenty, she was married to Mr. Charles Sigourney, of Hartford; a merchant of distinction, and a gentleman of wealth and education.  In 1822, Mrs. Sigourney published a poem called Traits of the Aborigines of America, the proceeds of which were wholly devoted to religious charities.  The Sketch of Connecticut Forty years since, a prose legend, in which the history of New England, and its romantic and varied scenery, are set forth in glowing colours, appeared in 1824.  From that time, until the present, she has never wearied in her endeavors to entertain and benefit the public mind, by her numerous writings in prose and verse.  Her pen is ever as ready as it is skilful, for charitable purposes; and the cause of missions, temperance, and every philanthropic society, have again and again been indebted to her genius.  The one great aim of her soul, is—to do good.  Mrs. Sigourney visited England and France in 1840, and spent a year in travelling among the cities and haunts most interesting to the mind of a poet, and most likely to yield, not only for herself,
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