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him preach repeatedly, and been almost constantly in his company; and thus prepared to appreciate his character, I have no hesitation in saying that I deem his moral and social qualities equal to his intellectual. I admire him for the superior majesty of his mind; I love him for the transcendent nobleness of his heart!

XI. REV. DR. HAWKS.
(April, 1847.)

THE Rector of Christ's Church in New Orleans, has legitimately won for himself a distinguished position, in both the literary world and the ecclesiastical. In the meridian of life, he is also in the zenith of his popularity; which is evident from his late simultaneous election to the presidency of William and Mary College, and the University of Louisiana.

Dr. Hawks has a fine classic forehead, and a piercing black eye, indicative of great shrewdness, with something of wit and humor; and a certain sinister expression, not quite so agreeable. His elocution is excellent; his reading, a model; and never do the words of scripture appear more worthy of God, than when they fall from those well taught lips in the sanctuary. He seems to cast the text in a new mould, and present it in a new form. The

words, indeed, are the same; but the reader has evidently found their true meaning, and he holds it up to the hearer like a beautiful transparency. His voice is deep, musical, and fascinating; within a certain compass, very flexible; and delightfully modulated to the variations of thought, and the different parts of the discourse. It is a well tuned instrument, touched by the hand of a master. His style is elegant and melodious; and his thoughts flow on like the brooklet within its emerald banks, crowned with the pendant foliage, and purple flowers. In short, Dr. Hawks is a scholar, a writer, a logician, a theologian, and a pulpit orator, of the very first order.

MISCELLANEOUS PENCILINGS.

I. WOMAN.

(1840.)

"Still unobtrusive, serious and meek,
The first to listen, and the last to speak."

THE history of woman, as presented in the history of the world, is truly deplorable. In most ages and countries she has been considered an inferior being, capable only of meeting the humble claims of drudging toil, and of discharging the menial duties of a household. This was her condition in classic Greece; even in the land where wisdom itself was personified under a female form. Thucidides, the most eminent of her historians, has ascended only to the declaration, that "the best woman is she of whom the least can be said, either in praise or condemnation." Indeed, so rooted in the very foundations of belief has been the opinion of the sex's approximation to the mere animal creation, that many oriental nations still deny her a soul and banish her from the portals of heaven.

But the fountains of a juster faith have been opened; and woman, like the fabled nymph, has

come from her depths to gladden and to bless the world. The mind of the sex has escaped from its primitive infirmities and civil disabilities, and now holds rank in the world of letters. Abroad as well as at home, has this independence been achieved; and its fruits constitute the first contributions to the literature of the times. The spirit of the age is onward. It does not permit talent to lie long "wrapped in a napkin."

The interests of the na

tions demand utterance, and a thousand voices are heard in response to the call.

Some, however, have petulently asked: "Why need we concern ouselves in the affairs of politicians? What share have we in the destinies of our country." "The same," rejoins Mrs. Sigourney, "that the rill has in the river, and the river in the sea." If our exertions do not directly tend to advance the interests of state, they do indirectly, by cleansing the springs and purging the floor of the public mind. You will see the force of this assertion, when you reflect that it is a mother's hand which gives the proportions and marks the lineaments of that character which afterwards stands a model and enchants the world. What more noble picture than the mother of the boy Washington, teaching him to tell the truth; or Mrs. Wesley, patiently hearing her child's lesson the twentieth time, because nineteen would not suffice?''

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II. "WHY DOES WOMAN WRITE?"

(1841.)

THIS question at the present period would seem at first uncalled for; but when we compare the opinions of the age, and find no little conflict among them upon this point, we shall certainly be pardoned for introducing a reflection of our own. Indeed, when "Reverend Seniors" gravely assure us, that "she who knoweth how to compound a pudding is more desirable than she who skillfully compoundeth a poem," and from this premise draw the conclusion that the ultimatum of female effort should be the acquisition and perfection of culinary arts, it becomes the chivalry of the sex to take up the glove and break a lance with the lordly cavaliers.

A judicious and extensive knowledge of the duties of the household is indispensable to her who aims to meet the claims of society, and it should enter as an important element into the education of woman. But whatever value may have been placed upon this knowledge in other times, however exclusive it may have been regarded, no sane man can hold up his head at present, and declare it the

Ultima Thule of female ambition.

Because woman ventures to overstep the bounds marked out by a barbarous age, shall she be charged with an unworthy ambition, or selfish vanity? Because she walks in the groves of the academy, and discourses upon philosophy and God, shall she be

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