In Christian world Mary the
garland wears!
Rebecca sweetens on a Hebrew’s ear;
Quakers for pure Priscilla are
more clear;
And the light Gaul by amorous
Ninon swears.
Among the lesser lights how Lucy
shines!
What air of fragrance Rosamund
throws round!
How like a hymn doth sweet Cecilia
sound!
Of Marthas, and of
Abigails, few lines
Have bragg’d in verse. Of coarsest household
stuff
Should homely Joan be fashioned.
But can
You Barbara resist, or
Marian?
And is not Clare for love excuse
enough?
Yet, by my faith in numbers, I profess,
These all, than Saxon Edith, please me less.
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MANY thanks for the life you have given us—I am perfectly satisfied. But if you advert to it again, I give you a delicate hint. Barbara S—— shadows under that name Miss Kelly’s early life, and I had the Anecdote beautifully from her.