INTRODUCTORY. THE life of Henrietta Hamlin was peculiarly a silent, though most winning voice. In many respects she was like the lovely and fragrant lily of the valley, which blooms almost in secret, and shrinkingly conceals its delicate beauties and its sweet odors from public observation. It is not easy to delineate such a character without despoiling it of one of its most attractive charms. Should any inquire why a life of such retiring delicacy is brought from its protecting shade and exposed to the public eye, we answer, it is unto the praise and glory of God's grace. He from whom emanates all intellectual and moral beauty has a right to be publicly honored by the exhibition of those gifts and graces which are a faint reflection of his own infinite loveliness. This portraiture may perhaps speak to hearts not reached by the usual type of biography; and the history of Mrs. Hamlin's early tendency to melancholy, which she long struggled against, and finally overcame, may not be without advantage to certain young and gifted minds, which, for the want of a definite object, rest under a cloud, and fail to accomplish any worthy end in life. The amount of good performed by so shrinking and delicate a woman, in a comparatively retired sphere of missionary life, may also, it is hoped, exert an influence in favor of that life upon some, who, fearing publicity, and feeling themselves fitted for only the more private walks of usefulness, have never consecrated themselves to the cause of missions. While, then, we would do no violence to the memory of Mrs. Hamlin's unaffected modesty, we feel assured that, however retiring may have been her nature, and however humbling her views of herself, she would not now be willing to cast a shade over the bright mirror of her Saviour's redeeming love, as exhibited so sweetly in her life, and so triumphantly in her death. These motives seem abundantly to justify a reverent lifting of the veil from the sanctuary of departed loveliness and piety. In the preparation of these memorials, there have been great obstacles, arising from the want of incident, and the absence in a great degree of those materials whereby the dear departed could speak for herself. Had Mrs. Hamlin's reserve been less, especially in relation to the workings of her spiritual nature, or had she not destroyed so many of her own writings, the record of her religious experience would have been much more satisfactory. In reference to this, writes Mr. Hamlin, "She said little about her frames and states. She loved to pray rather than to talk about prayer. In her daily life, she put on humility, charity, patience, meekness and whatever is lovely and of good report; but she said little about them, and wrote less. It is from this characteristic that but few allusions to religious feelings are found in her letters. They refer to the passing events around her; but there was an awe over Sinai and Calvary which made her silent as she approached them." From this habit of reserve, the quiet and cheerful performance of her daily duties is often our only exponent of her spiritual progress. Those, therefore, who are accustomed, in a biography, to look for an outpouring of the soul in correspondence, and for free extracts from a diary, recording its struggles upward towards holiness and heaven, will probably feel a disappointment in not finding a fuller account of Mrs. Hamlin's Christian experience. Sensible of these difficulties, the compiler pleads for the indulgence of those who knew and loved the departed one. And, on the other hand, as the subject o these memorials was for many years a most cherished friend, she cannot claim to be a mere impartial biographer. It has been her earnest desire so to present the character of her angel-friend as to render honor to the Saviour whom she loved, to commend the noble cause to which she devoted herself, and to win some to follow in her footsteps in so far as she followed Christ. 2* PARENTAGE. "My boast is not that I deduce my birth COWPER. In the south-western part of Vermont—a state so r mantic and picturesque as to be called the Switzerland of America-lies nestled among the Green Mountains the little village of Dorset. It is seldom that we see the grand and beautiful in such harmonious combination as in this whole mountain range. Amid precipitous heights, which rise in grandeur around you, are sunny slopes, stretching away in quiet loveliness, and smiling in all the fertility of a luxuriant vegetation. Occasionally are spread out before you rich pastures or fields of waving grain, reminding one of the mountain home where dwelt that faithful pastor, Felix Neff, surrounded by his humble and devout flock. At one moment, deep, dark ravines open to your view; at the next, you look upon intervals of rich verdure, spreading out in every direction, like carpets of the deepest green. Again, you behold an amphitheatre, sometimes one, sometimes three miles in extent, with dark sprucetrees, like sentinels, guarding the scene, and lifting their evergreen caps on high. Here and there, a mountain brook leaps from some hidden fountain, and, winding along its babbling way, pours its clear, fertilizing waters into the glad bosom of the sleeping vale. At the outer angle of one of these amphitheatres, called "The Hollow," sits Dorset, like a bird among the mountains. The road and the stream, having meandered side by side, here diverge, taking between them a sugar-loaf hill, a hundred and fifty feet high, which rises in lofty beauty, the natural stage of the encompassing amphitheatre. This spot, with its sublime and picturesque scenery, Dr. Dwight pronounced inferior to but one other locality in New England. Here, more than fifty years ago, while the place, in its uncultivated beauties, was a comparative wilderness, came that good man, William Jackson, as a pastor to the humble saints who in this quiet valley worshipped God. Literally, as well as spiritually, did this faithful shepherd lead his flock in green pastures and beside the still waters. The father of Mrs. Hamlin, Rev. William Jackson, D.D., was born in 1768, at Cornwall, Conn. He was blessed in his paternal ancestors, who were distinguished for piety and usefulness. When he was but three years old, his parents removed to Wallingford, Vermont, with a family of eleven children, William being the youngest but one. His father was the first settler in the town, the first town-clerk, the first representative in the Legislature, and the first deacon in the church, of which he was truly the main pillar, supporting the first minister almost entirely from his own resources. At the age of sixteen, William became a subject of renewing grace, and soon commenced his studies preparatory to the ministry. In 1790 he was graduated at Dartmouth College, where he formed a friendship with Dr. Porter, of Andover, which continued through life. He studied theology with Dr. Emmons and Dr. Samuel Spring, whose esteem and confidence he largely |