Lives of Celebrated Women

Lives of Celebrated Women is by Samuel G. Goodrich. The preface calls it an oft-quoted proposition of Rousseau that "the glory of woman lies in being unknown," and says that if this be true, the writers shall deserve little credit for placing before the world these brief sketches.

Mr. Kent proposes to the parents of Lucretia that he adopt her as his own child; the proposal is in part accepted, and it is determined to send her to the Troy Seminary. A letter to her sister makes known the feelings of Lucretia on this occasion, saying, "O, I am so delighted, so happy!" A first-person account says that Mademoiselle Urgon, the village schoolmistress, taught the writer to read, that the writer learnt with great facility, having an excellent memory, and that the writer was brought up with a brother fifteen months younger, of whom the writer was exceedingly fond. Essex says he owes her majesty the duty of an earl, but that he will never serve her as a villain and a slave, on an occasion when she had repaid some want of obsequiousness by a blow.