It is impossible not to look back with admiration upon the benevolence that prompted these kind attentions; and it is not a difficult effort of imagination to enter the library, and to view these laborious, and dissimilar students together. The _one_, distinguished by the natural ease, grace and elegance of his manners; the _other_, timid and helpless. The one, treading with the elastic step of youth, and the other declining into the vale of years; yet both drawn together by those sympathies, which spring from the fountain of perfect and everlasting good. Who would not be touched by the spectacle of a young man of distinguished talents, equally sought by the world of _science_, and of _fashion_, extending a helping hand, and devoting a portion of his valuable time, to a timid and helpless female, shrinking from the ills of life; but who indeed derived her happiness from the same sources that he did, literature and religion! When, from indisposition, she omitted for any length of time her visits, a kind note, or a still kinder call alleviated the infirmities of her health. But this happiness was not to last. Miss Adams was only one among the many who beheld Mr Buckminster disappear, at the early age of twenty-eight years, ‘in all the brightness of his honors, and without any twilight coming over his fame.’ Miss Adams corresponded with literary characters both abroad and at home, but she never preserved any copies of her own letters. She wrote with great simplicity, and singleness of heart, without any display, and set no value on her own composition. She had, indeed, a singular standard of judging. It was her firm persuasion, that she never wrote anything original. ‘It is other people’s thoughts,’ said she, ‘that I put into my own language.’ Were all writers brought to the same test, there are few that could claim much originality of thought; though the rich and varied modes of expression, and the different views which different minds take of fundamental truths, often give them the grace and charm of novelty. In this opinion of herself, however, she seems to refute her position; as it must be acknowledged that this view of her own works is rather _original_ among authors. Her defect was, underrating, instead of overrating her powers. Her mind was like a well cultivated garden, stored with fruits and flowers, and watered by pure streams. But they were streams that flowed on just as nature had intended. There were no cascades, nor fountains, nor serpentine walks, nor rare exotics. All was simple, and natural.