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358       ELIZABETH F. ELLET.

And I have dream'd that it should yet be mine
To sit entranced beneath thy wizard skill,
And see thee wield that mystic gift divine
Which held each heart a captive to thy will;
While by its aid the intellectual realm
Obey'd thy impulse as a ship its helm.

Yes! thou hast been to me a dream - and lo!
Its bright fulfilment in the prairied West!
For though Time's pinion may have touch'd thy brow,
The gem within defies his withering test!
Genius triumphant! Glorious Prince of Art!
Still is thine empire own'd in every heart!

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ELIZABETH F. ELLET.

THE father of this distinguished lady, Dr. William N. Lummis of New Jersey, was a physician, a man of talent and scholarship, and the pupil and friend of that eminent physician and good man, Doctor Benjamin Rush. Her mother is a niece of General Maxwell, noted for his services in the Revolutionary war. Dr. Lummis soon relinquished the practice of medicine, and settled on his estate near Sodus Bay on Lake Ontario, where the subject of this sketch was born.  The beautiful scenery - "The woodlands gay, and waters sparkling clear," - of her childhood's home, she has celebrated in one of her sweetest strains. She was married very young to Dr. Ellet, and removed to Columbia, South Carolina, where her husband (who had previously occupied the chair of Chemistry in Columbia College, New York,) was elected to the professorship of Chemistry, Mineralogy, and Geology, in the South Carolina College. Soon after her marriage, Mrs. Ellet published a volume of Poems, Translated and Original, with a tragedy called Teresa Contarini, which was successfully performed in


ELIZABETH F. ELLET.         359

New York and other cities. Her next work was The Characters of Schiller; which was quickly followed by a volume of interesting historical sketches, called Scenes in the Life of Joanna of Sicily. After these, appeared her Country Rambles; in which she has painted with an artist's hand and lover's eye, some of the most beautiful scenes of her native land. She lately published a work on The Women of the Revolution, the materials for which are chiefly drawn from private papers in the possession of various families, and from their personal recollections. Mrs. Ellet is a superior linguist; and (as her numerous and excellent translations testify,) has an extensive acquaintance with the literature of Italy, France, Germany, and some of the more northerly nations of Europe. She is a writer of great research, of equal skill and industry; and her prose articles in the American Quarterly, and New York Review, are characterized by their learning and good taste.

As a poet Mrs. Ellet is elevated, tranquil, and reflective. Her versification is smooth, and her epithets well-chosen and expressive. That faculty of accurate observation, which is one of the first requisites for the production of poetry, whether it acts upon outward objects or upon images present only to the mind, she has in a great degree. Her descriptive poems are natural and pleasing; while her moral poems are always imbued with that far-reaching wisdom, taught by the grave philosopher—Experience. 


SUSQUEHANNA.

SOFTLY the blended light of evening rests
Upon thee, lovely stream! Thy gentle tide,
Picturing the gorgeous beauty of the sky,
Onward, unbroken by the ruffling wind,
Majestically flows. Oh! by thy side,
Far from the tumults and the throng of men,
And the vain cares that vex poor human life,
'T were happiness to dwell, alone with thee,
And the wide solemn grandeur of the scene.
From thy green shores, the mountains that enclose
In their vast sweep the beauties of the plain,
Slowly receding, toward the skies ascend,
Enrobed with clustering woods o'er which the smile

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