aper," wrote Mrs. Prentiss in 1832.

[2] He was the author of a curious work entitled, "Proofs of the real
Existence, and dangerous Tendency, of Illuminism." Charlestown, 1802. By
"Illuminism" he means an organised attempt, or conspiracy, to undermine
the foundations of Christian society and establish upon its ruins the
system of atheism.

[3] "I spent part of last evening reading over some old letters of my
grandmother's and never realised before what a remarkable woman she was
both as to piety and talent."--_From a letter of Mrs. Prentiss, written
in 1864._

[4] In a letter to his mother,--written when Elizabeth was three years
old, he says: "E. has a terrible abscess, which we feared would prove
too much for her slender constitution. We were almost worn out with
watching; and, just as she began to mend, I was seized with a violent
ague in my face, which gave me incessant anguish for six days and nights
together, and deprived me almost entirely of sleep. Three nights I did
not close my eyes. When well nigh distracted with pain and loss of
sleep, Satan was let loose upon me, to buffet me, and I verily thought
would have driven me to desperation and madness."

[5] The late President Wayland.

[6] Prof. Calvin E. Stowe, D.D.

[7] The late Rev. Absalom Peters, D.D.

[8]

I can see the breezy dome of groves,
The shadows of Deering's Woods;
And the friendships old and the early loves
Come back with a Sabbath sound, as of doves
In quiet neighborhoods.
And the verse of that sweet old song,
It flutters and murmurs still:
"A boy's will is the wind's will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts."
--LONGFELLOW'S _My Lost Youth._

[9] "The Lament of the Last Peach" had been written by her a year
before when in Brooklyn, and her friend's brother had sent it to "The
Knickerbocker," the popular Magazine of that day. Here it is:

LAMENT OF THE LAST PEACH.

In solemn silence here I live,
A lone, deserted peach;
So high that none but birds and winds
My quiet bough can reach.
And mournfully, and hopelessly,
I think upon the past;
Upon my dear departed friends,
And I, the last--the last.

My friends! oh, daily one by one
I've seen them drop away;
Unheeding all the tears and prayers
That vainly bade them stay.
And here I hang alone, alone--
While life is fleeing fast;
And sadly sigh that I am left
The la