Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. FROM ANNE BRADSTREET TO MRS. STOWE. The same gratifying progress and improvement noticed in the wit of women of other lands is seen in studying the literary annals of our own countrywomen. Think of Anne Bradstreet,' Mercy Warren, and Tabitha Tenney, all extolled to the skies by their contemporaries. Mercy Warren was a satirist quite in the strain of Juvenal, but in cumbrous, artificial fashion. Hon. John Winthrop consulted her on the proposed suspension of trade with England in all but the necessaries of life, and she playfully gives a list of articles that would be included in that word : " An inventory clear Of all she needs Lamira offers here ; Nor does she fear a rigid Cato's frown, When she lays by the rich embroidered gown, And modestly compounds for just enough, Perhaps some dozens of mere flighty stuff ; With lawns and lute strings, blonde and Mechlin laces, Fringes and jewels, fans and tweezer-cases ; Gay cloats and hat, of every shape and size, Scarfs, cardinals, and ribands, of all dyes, With ruffles stamped and aprons of tambour, Tippets and handkerchiefs, at least threescore; With finest muslins that fair India boasts, And the choice herbage from Chinesian coasts j Add feathers, furs, rich satin, and dncapes, And head-dresses in pyramidal shapes ; Sideboards of plate and porcelain profuse, With fifty dittoes that the ladies use. So weak Lamira and her wants so few Who can refuse? they're but the sex's due." Mrs. Sigourney, voluminous and mediocre, is amusing because so absolutely destitute of humor, and her style, a feminine Johnsonese, is absurdly hifalutin and strained. This is the way in which she alludes to green apples : " From the time of their first taking on orbicular shape, and when it might be supposed their hardn...