Summoned Cassidy, and informed him that I
was to wind up the clock, and that he was promoted to take off the
top for me; and then up I went and wound the clock, and wound it as
I had done before you was born, as there is nothing easier, only to
see that it is not going to _maintain_ at the very instant, which
is plainly to be noted by the position of the maintaining pin on
the little outer wheel relative to the first deep tooth. You see I
am not quite a nincompoop. I send my lines:--

"Ireland, with all thy faults, thy follies too,
I love thee still: still with a candid eye must view
Thy wit too quick, still blundering into sense;
Thy reckless humor; sad improvidence;
And even what sober judges follies call--
I, looking at the heart, forget them all."

MARIA E., May, 1849.

Miss Edgeworth had been staying with Mr. and Mrs. Butler in the spring.
When taking leave she was unusually agitated and depressed, but said as
she went away: "At Whitsuntide I shall return." On the very day before
she was to redeem this promise, she drove out in apparent good health,
when a sudden feeling of weakness overcame her and made her return to
the house. Severe pains in the region of the heart set in, and after a
few hours' illness Maria Edgeworth died--died as she had fondly wished,
at home, in the arms of her stepmother. Yet another of her wishes was
granted: she had spared her friends the anguish of seeing her suffer
from protracted illness. May 22d, 1849, she rose from the banquet of
life, where, in her own words, she had been a happy guest.

* * * * *

In her latter years Miss Edgeworth had been asked to furnish prefaces
of a biographical character to her novels. She refused, saying she had
nothing personal to tell. "As a woman, my life, wholly domestic, cannot
afford anything interesting to the public; I am like the 'needy
knife-grinder'--I have no story to tell."

Was she right? or is not the story of so loving and lovable a life worth
telling?

MESSRS. ROBERTS BROTHERS' PUBLICATIONS.

Famous Women Series.

GEORGE ELIOT.

BY MATHILDE BLIND.

One vol. 16mo. Cloth. Price, $1.00.

"Messrs. Roberts Brothers begin a series of Biographies of Famous Women
with a life of George Eliot, by Mathilde Blind. The idea of the series
is an excellent one, and the reputation of its publishers is a guarantee
for