English officer, and passed several years with her husband in India. Since his decease, which occurred when she was in the prime of life, Mrs. Sherwood has found her chief occupations and pleasures in her own home, instructing her children and writing works to assist in the Christian instruction of the young. The titles of her books show for whom they were prepared. "Little Henry and his Bearer" was her first literary production. Then followed "The History of John Martin," "The Fairchild Family," "The Infant's Progress," "The Indian Pilgrim," "Victoria Anzoomund," "Birthday Present," "Errand Boy," "The Young Foresters," "Juliana Oakley," "Erminia," "Emancipation," and a number of other stories. Her largest and most important work, however, is "The Lady of the Manor," in four volumes. Its design is to teach the doctrines of the Church of England to young females; and whatever opinion we may entertain as to the utility of the religious novel, we must confess that this author is entitled to our warmest esteem as a woman of sincere piety, who has laboured long and earnestly in the highest and holiest cause that can occupy a female pen—the advancement of Christ's kingdom on earth. In her literary claims Mrs. Sherwood is excelled by many living writers of her own sex; as a Christian, few could be found worthy to rank as her equal. Her works have been widely circulated in America.
SHINDLER, MARY B.,
Was born on the 16th. of February, 1810, in Beaufort, South Carolina, where her father, the Rev. B. M. Palmer, was pastor of an Independent, or Congregational church. When she was about three years old, her father removed to Charleston, South Carolina, his native place, where he remained for the succeeding twenty-five years. Here Miss Palmer enjoyed the best advantages of education, being placed at an early age under the care of the Misses Ramsay, daughters of the historian; and sent, when she became old enough, to some of the best northern schools. Her poetical talents were very early developed, her first piece of poetry having been written at the age often; soon after her final return from school, some of her productions fell into the hands of a friend, who showed them to Mrs. Gilman, at that time editress of the juvenile periodical called the "Rose-Bud;" she inserted these poems, and encouraged Miss Palmer to write; but it was not till years after, when she had drunk deeply of the bitter waters of affliction, that her heart poured out its sorrows through her pen.
In June, 1836, Miss Palmer was married to Mr. Charles E. Dana, and in 1837, he, with his family, consisting of his wife and child, a boy of about two years of age, removed to Bloomington, Iowa. Here the husband and child died' within two days of each other, and Mrs. Dana was left alone in a land of strangers. ]n October of the same year she returned to her parents; and it was during her residence with them that the greater part of her works was written. These were composed, not with any view to publication, hut as she herself says in one of her letters, "Burning thoughts were struggling within my breast, and I must give them utterance. My friends encouraged me to write, because they thought that the expression of my grief would relieve me, and so, in truth, it did. But when I had accumulated a mass of manuscripts, they urged
