Although she was neither a plagiarist nor an imitator, her inspiration is obviously Byronic. The want of consistent truthfulness, and the indulgence of reverie spoilt her fine mind, as dodder spoils the rose. Abstract thought, directed by intention, is the most laborious, the most profitable, and the most ennobling exercise of the human spirit. It comprehends, and it appropriates, all the benefits derivable from personal observation and experience, from social intercourse, from books, and from every other means of mental, moral, and spiritual instruction. It is also the hallowed vehicle of Divine communion. Reverie is not an act: it is merely a passive state, wherein all the higher faculties, with their agent, common sense, lie dormant; while wayward memory and fugitive sensations sport with the slumbering fancy. A fine mind in reverie is like a bardic harp abandoned and exposed to unskilled hands, wild winds, and casual weather. Yet for a while it utters sweet and powerful tones, but slackening wires, breaking strings, and a decaying frame, too soon foretell approaching ruin. It is a poor excuse for this baneful habit to allege that the current of indulged ideas is innocent, and recreative to a weary mind. Such, doubtless, may often be the case; for the prevalent disposition of the individual will generally be found to influence both the waking and sleeping dreams. But the fact that a powerful horse has now and then with impunity been trusted with the reins upon his neck, would afford no great security for the rider's safety in taking off the bit and bridle, and committing the animal freely to his uncontrolled caprices. No recreations ought to be considered lawful but such as fit us for renewed labour. Reverie therefore, is not allowable. In truth, it is altogether mischievous-destructive to some minds, and injurious to all. CHAPTER XIX. A.D. 1838. NOVEMBER. THE POETESSES. Anne Grant. "In youth she was lovely; and Time, When her rose with the cypress he twined, Left the heart all the warmth of its prime, ANNE GRANT. DUNCAN MACVICAR, a Highland gentleman, married in the year 1753 a Stewart of Invernahyle, and changing agricultural occupations for commercial pursuits, took up his residence in the city of Glasgow, where he had many good friends. He was an upright and pious man, with a talent and tendency for money making. His wife was a good and prudent woman, of cheerful disposition, narrow understanding, and notable habits. There was much moral elevation in the characters of both, and the consciousness of their good Celtic blood refined their manners, though it flowed not very warmly through their hearts. Their only child, Anne Macvicar, was born at Glasgow, on the 21st of February, 1755, and nursed in the mountain home of her maternal forefathers until she was eighteen months old. In the year 1757, Duncan Macvicar, having obtained a commission in the 77th Regiment of Foot, went out to America, leaving his wife and daughter at Glasgow. Mrs. Macvicar some time afterwards received his directions to follow him; and accompanied by their little Anne, she landed at Charleston in the year 1758, and took up her temporary abode at Albany. Mr. Macvicar, having exchanged into the 55th Regiment, and being much trusted by the commandant as a steady and clever man of business, was sent down from head-quarters at Oswego on Lake Ontario to buy stores, with leave of absence to visit his family. On his return, he took his wife and child with him to the garrison, travelling in a boat up the river. He served in the disastrous attack on Ticonderoga, July 8, 1758, when seven of his brother officers were killed. On the declaration of peace between Great Britain and France in 1762, the 55th Regiment was ordered to New York, previous to embarkation for England. The Macvicars returning by the river from Oswego to Albany, became intimate with the celebrated Madame Schuyler, who had then left her mansion on the The Flats, and become a resident in that town. Mr. Macvicar retiring on half-pay from the army in 1765, received a grant of land from Government, and purchased from two of his brother officers the lands which had been also assigned to them. These, lying together, and promising when cleared to become a fertile and profitable estate, Mr. Macvicar employed persons to survey and map them, reasonably expecting that his "Township of Clarendon " would in a few years become a very valuable property. Meanwhile, in order to negotiate with persons desirous of settling on his estate, and to watch the social changes consequent upon the termination of the war, he became the tenant of Madame Schuyler's new house at The Flats, in the township of Claverac, and of a few adjacent acres of land. At this period of her life, little Anne had two homes, usually spending the summer with her parents, and the winter with Madame Schuyler at Albany. Madame Schuyler became the Minerva of her imagination, and the affections of the energetic child, as well as the varied powers of her active and original mind, grew and flourished under the judicious culture of that wise and excellent woman. Under her inspection, Anne Macvicar became conversant with all the details of a large and well regulated domestic establishment, was trained to habits of orderly arrangement, and to the methodical disposal of time. She daily saw the negroes working at all kinds of trades, and thus became acquainted with the materials used and the processes employed. She had lived beside vast lakes, magnificent rivers, and primæval forests. She knew by sight and name the different species of fish; when the sturgeons were to be expected, and the manner in which the fishermen followed and caught them by torch-light. She could tell by the altered sounds of the waterfall each coming change of wind and weather. By making incisions in the bark of trees, she could ascertain the points of the compass: the frigid northern blasts always thickening the side exposed to them. She could discern the nature of soils by the vegetation they produced. She was acquainted with the haunts of wild animals, from the deer to the squirrel, from the wolf to the rat. She knew all the amphibious birds of the Hudson river, from the bald-headed eagle to the curlew; all the water-fowl, from the scarlet-headed duck to the didapper. She had learned their periods of migration and those of the land-birds, the setting forth of their flights at dawn, their noon-day resting-places, and their night shelters. She was familiar with the notes, plumage, and habits of forty different kinds, and with their several nests and eggs. She also knew the different species of insects, and the different kinds of grain on which they fed. She had seen the dykes of the beavers, and the lurking holes of the snakes. She had learned the local name, the properties and uses of every tree, shrub, and plant; and which crops might most profitably be raised on each soil, and in succession to each other: that the land where chesnut-trees grow wild is good for wheat; that where the white oak trees grew, the maize would thrive and pastures flourish; that where wild strawberries abound, they betoken a fertile soil. She had received ocular demonstration of the advantages of commerce, seeing the productions of different countries, and of different parts of the same country exchanged; and had been early initiated in politics by hearing discussions upon the characters and interests of various tribes and nations. She had lived among Dutch settlers, French Huguenots, English soldiers, negro slaves, and Mohawk Indians. She had learned the language of Holland among her young friends at Albany, and shared their summer recreation of canoeing to the islets, and jaunting in little horse-chairs to the bush. Their winter diversion of sledging down the slope she had refused to partake, but had practised it alone. She had frequented the summer wigwams of the Indians, admired the native dignity of their sachems, and the grave calm courage of the warrior hunters. She could talk their language sufficiently well to make herself understood by those women and children who were accustomed to European intercourse, and she took pleasure in watching the progress of their ingenious handicrafts, their preparation of the birch-wood and bark, and of deer-skins, their |