MRS. FLETCHER,

LATE MISS JEWSBURY.

BY MRS. ELLIS.

MISS JEWSBURY, whose portrait stands as the frontispiece to the present volume, was a native of Warwickshire, born in the year 1800. In the early part of her life her family removed to Manchester, where she resided until the time of her marriage with the Rev. Kew Fletcher, on the second of August, 1832.

In contemplating the character of this distinguished woman, there appears little for the pen to record, but much for the mind to expatiate upon; and there are few individuals, amongst those who are capable of appreciating the depth, the extent, and the strength of her mental capabilities, who will not feel with the writer of this humble memorial, a disposition, not always rightly controlled, to regret that a star so bright and benignant in its influence, should have set to the world, before the fulness of its splendour was revealed. In the writings of Miss Jewsbury, brilliant and powerful as they are, we are struck more with what she might have been, than with what she was. Not merely with what she might have been as a writer, but as an experienced and exemplary Christian. By her own confession, in an affecting and characteristic letter, written a short time before her departure for India, she had done nothing to live; and

of the fragments of thought and feeling left behind her, it cannot be said that they prove, either collectedly or individually, what her mind was capable of working out. It may with more propriety be remarked, that they resemble specimens of the precious ore of some deep unfathomed mine, from whose wealth the world is now shut out for ever. The same impenetrable veil has been drawn between our eyes, and the full developement of her religious character. For though there is clear and satisfactory evidence, in the tone and character of her writings, that her mind was deeply impressed with the force of scriptural truth, and her heart secured against the many temptations to which her ardent nature was peculiarly liable, by a well-grounded religious faith, she was removed from this scene of spiritual conflict, before all the energies of her soul appeared to be fully matured, or devoted, as there is every reason to believe they would have been, to the highest and noblest purposes of existence. And thus we sorrow, perhaps with too much poignancy, over the early death of one so peculiarly calculated to adorn and improve the society of which we form a part; forgetting, that He who seeth not as man seeth, needs no ray of earthly splendour to add to the glory of his crown, and therefore, more compassionate than we are in our short-sightedness and folly, he not unfrequently quenches the rising splendour of human intellect, in mercy to the weak and suffering nature to which it is allied. It is probable, too, that the early grave which men weep over," may afford a blessed deliverance from temptations, unknown except to the heart where they exist, and to Him who formed that heart, and who pities its manifold infirmities.

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It is a well-known truth, that genius is a fearful, and sometimes fatal gift; and genius of that particular kind which distinguished the character of Miss Jewsbury, is, perhaps, the most to be feared in connexion with the happiness or misery of

its possessor. The author of the 66 Enthusiast" has, in that story, bequeathed to the world a striking and most melancholy picture of the ceaseless conflict, the insatiable thirst for what is unattainable, and the final wretchedness necessarily attendant upon the ungoverned ambition of superior intellect, when associated with the weakness, natural dependence, and susceptibility of woman. The character of Julia, with an injustice too frequently practised, has been identified with that of the authoress herself; and though, by her own confession," the childhood, the opening years, and many of the after opinions" of her heroine are drawn from her own; we feel the highest satisfaction in turning from the dreary void to which this ideal being is consigned, to the indefatigable industry, the practical usefulness, and the religious zeal which imparted solidity and worth to the later years of the real " Enthusiast."

The most striking features in the character of Miss Jewsbury, were such as qualified her in an especial manner for shining in society. Naturally prone to satire, she looked upon the world, not with the tempered vision of one early initiated in its hackneyed customs; but, with the keen perception of an unsophisticated and self-tutored mind, she fearlessly assailed its absurdities, and sported with its follies like a child with its toys, until their impotence wearies him, and their frailty disappoints. It was then, in the midst of her playfulness, when her strong moral feelings were excited, that she seemed to possess an intuitive power of striking off, as it were, masses of thought, and scattering them amongst her hearers, with a rapidity of movement in all the operations of her own intellect, which, in the opinion of Wordsworth, was without its equal in any other mind. And this variety perpetually recurring, mingled also with a profound heart-searching melancholy, whose "boding voice" was ever reminding her of death and the grave,

rendered the seasons of intellectual communion with Miss Jewsbury like bright spots, in the existence of all who knew and loved her, never to be forgotten, and never to be effaced by their likeness to any thing on earth.

It is not for common-place, tame, and unimaginative minds to form an idea of what must have been the temptations to a being thus endowed, when surrounded by an admiring circle. That Miss Jewsbury's experience should, in many points, have too closely resembled that of her own "Enthusiast," can be no subject of surprise. The wonder is, (and would that all who wonder might learn to imitate as well as admire!) that, knowing and feeling herself to be thus endowed, she should have devoted her time, her care, and her affectionate attention, to the household duties of her father's family, until the total failure of her health rendered it a higher duty to withdraw from such arduous and unremitting occupations. Even then, when her recovery was despaired of, she was not idle; for she had a strong principle within her, perpetually prompting her to employ all the powers she was gifted with, in promoting the temporal and eternal benefit of her fellow-creatures. During her stay at Leamington she wrote her "Letters to the Young," many of them addressed to her own young friends, and all bearing evidence of a strong conviction of the importance and necessity of that entire devotedness of the heart to God, which this work so strenuously recommends.

It may be said, (for many unjust and unkind things are said of literary women,) that the love of fame might influence her even in the high and holy duty of recommending the religion of the Bible to the acceptance and adoption of youth; and rather than dispute this point, we turn again to her domestic character, and contemplate her at the age of nineteen, taking the sole management of a large family, the youngest of which was but a month

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old. To this child, whose health was extremely delicate, she devoted herself with unremitting anxiety, and it is, humanly speaking, to her long and unceasing kindness that her youngest brother now owes his life. Yet at the same time, that there burned within her soul the unquenchable fire of a genius too powerful to be extinguished by the many cares of her arduous life, so fearful was she of being absorbed by any selfish pursuit, that she made it a point of conscience never to take up a book, until all her little charge had retired to rest for the night. With what avidity she then drank at the well of knowledge, may be inferred from the insatiable thirst for distinction which at a very early period of her existence filled her mind.

I was nine years old," she says in the letter already alluded to," when the ambition of writing a book, being praised publicly, and associating with authors, seized me as a vague longing." The desire of her heart in after years was granted, and what was the result? Not the satisfaction of having earned a rich reward, but keen regrets that she had not done better, and earned more. "I would gladly burn almost every thing I ever wrote," is her own affecting expression in the same letter, "if so be that I might start now with a mind that has seen, and thought, and suffered something at least approaching to a preparation." And then in what beautiful language does she lament her own past impatience in attempting to seize, without attaining, excellence. "Alas! alas! we all sacrifice the palmtree, to obtain the temporary draught of wine! We slay the camel that would bear us through the desert, because we will not endure a momentary thirst. I have done nothing to live, and what I have yet done must pass away with a thousand other blossoms, the growth, the beauty, and oblivion of a day. The powers which I feel, and of which I have given promise, may mature, may stamp themselves in act; but the spirit of