“Girls’ Reading Book,” prose and poetry, 243 pp., 1838, between twenty and thirty editions; “Boys’ Reading Book,” prose and poetry, 247 pp., 1839, many editions; “Letters to Mothers,” 296 pp., 1838, eight editions; “Pocahontas and other Poems,” 283 pp., 1841, reprinted in London; “Poems,” 255 pp., small size, 1842; “Pleasant Memoirs of Pleasant Lands,” 368 pp., prose and poetry, 1842; “Child’s Book,” prose and poetry, 150 pp., small size, 1844; “Scenes in my Native Land,” prose and poetry, 319 pp., 1844; “Poems for the Sea,” 152 pp., 1845; “Voice of Flowers,” prose and poetry, 123 pp., small size, 1845, eight editions in five years; “The Lovely Sisters,” 100 pp., small size, 1845; “Myrtis and other Etchings,” 292 pp., 1846; “Weeping Willow,” poetry, 128 pp., small size, 1846, six editions in four years; “Water Drops,” prose and poetry, 275 pp., 1847; “Illustrated Poems,” 408 pp. 8vo., 1848; “Whisper to a Bride,” prose and poetry, 80 pp., small size, 1849; “Letters to my Pupils,” 320 pp., 1851.
Besides these volumes, thirty-five in number, she has produced several pamphlets, and almost innumerable contributions to current periodical literature. She has moreover maintained a very extensive literary correspondence, amounting in some years to an exchange of thirteen or fourteen hundred letters.
Perhaps no one, who has written so much as Mrs. Sigourney, has written so little to cause self-regret in the review. The secret of this lies in that paramount sense of duty which is the obvious spring of her writings, as of all her conduct. If it has not led her to the highest regions of fancy, it has saved her from all those disgraceful falls that too often mark the track of genius. Along the calm, sequestered vale of duty and usefulness, her writings, like a gentle river fresh from its mountain springs, have gladdened many a quiet home, have stimulated into fertility many a generous heart. Some of her small volumes, like the “Whisper to a Bride,” are unpretending in character as they are diminutive in appearance, but they contain a wealth of beauty and goodness that few would believe that have not examined them. Of her larger volumes, none are more widely known than the “Letters to Young Ladies,” and “Letters to Mothers.” “Letters to my Pupils,” just published, will probably be equally popular, as they are equally beautiful. The scraps of autobiography, so gracefully mixed up with her reminiscences of others, will add a special charm to this volume for the thousands who have felt the genial influence of her teachings and writings.
The first of the extracts which follow is from “Myrtis and other Etchings.”
