ACCOUNT OF THE EXTRAORDINARY LITERARY ENDOWMENTS OF MISS ELIZABETH SMITH. In a work confessedly written for the in- | actions; whatever she did was well done, and with an apparent reflection far beyond her years. struction and amusement of the fair sex, we conceive we cannot fulfil our engagement more to the satisfaction of our readers, certainly not more to our own satisfaction, than when we introduce to their notice biographical sketches of females, whose innate virtue and superior talents have added a lustre to the times in which we live. We have hitherto, from the nature of our plan, and from what we think due to rank, drawn our sketches chiefly from high life; but should we, as it is our intention in the present instance, descend a little lower, we shall perhaps exhibit a life, short as it unfortunately was, more easy of imitation to the generality of our readers. The great intellectual acquirements which the subject of our present memoir attained at an early period of her existence may, indeed, be difficult to accomplish, nor is it necessary for the hap "In the beginning of 1782," says her mother, " we removed into a distaut county, at the earnest entreaty of a blind relation; and in the following year my attendance on him becoming so necessary as daily to engage several hours, at his request I was induced to take a young lady, whom he wished to serve in consequence of her family having experienced some severe misfortunes " This lady, then scarcely sixteen, but whose abilities exceeded her years, became the governess of her children for about eighteen months. On the death of her relation, in 1784, Mrs. Smith informs us that they returned to B, and remained there till June in the following year, when they removed to Piercefield. In the course of the preceding winter Miss Elizabeth piness of the female sex that all should attempt | Smith had made an uncommon progress in it; but the modest diffidence which she entertained of her abilities, and the great humility she shewed in every part of her life, notwithstanding her superior understanding and knowledge, will, we hope, be copied by many of our fair readers. Miss Elizabeth Smith, the young lady of whom we are going to speak, has been brought to public notice by Mrs. Bowdler, the amiable anthor of the well known and greatly admired Sermons on the Doctrines and Duties of Christianity; and it is from her fourth edition of Fragments in Prose and Verse, by a young Lady lately deceased, that we profess to draw our information respecting her. Miss Elizabeth Smith, we learn by a letter from her mother contained in the above volame, was born at B-, in the county of Durham, in December 1776. At a very early age she discovered that love of reading, and that close application to whatever she was engaged in, which marked her character through life. She was accustomed, when only three years old, to leave an elder brother and younger sister to play and amuse themselves, while she eagerly seized on such books as a nursery library commonly affords, and made herself mistress of their contents. At four years of age she read extremely well. What in others is usually the effect of education and habit, seemed born with her; from a very habe the utmost regularity was observable in all her No. XLI. Vol. VI. music. From that time till the spring of the year 1786, the children had no instruction but from their mother, their former governess then returned to them, and continued in the family three years longer. By her the children were instructed in French, and in the little Italian which she herself then understood. These particulars Mrs. Smith says she mentions to prove how very little instruction in languages her daughter received, and that the knowledge she afterwards acquired of them was the effect of her own unassisted study. In the year 1789, the late Mrs Bowdler spent some weeks with the Smith family, at which time, it is supposed, Miss Elizabeth Smith, by accidentally hearing that Mrs. Bowdler had acquired some knowledge of Hebrew and Greek purposely to read the Holy Scriptures in the original languages, was induced to make those languages her particular study, and to have obtained so much facility in the former language as to have left behind her a translation of the Book of Job, which a very learned divine has pronounced as conveying more of the true character and meaning of the Hebrew, with fewer departures from the idiom of the English, than any other translation whatever that we possess; to combine accuracy of version with purity of style, and to unite critical research with familiar exposition. At the age of thirteen Miss Elizabeth Smith became a sort of governess to her younger B |