the spontaneous effusions of friendship. As such I tender them to Mr. Vanderkemp, sure of his indulgence, since I make no pretensions to the character which he professes to fear, that of a learned lady." * * * * * These observations are strictly true. To learning, in the ordinary sense of that term, Mrs. Adams could make no claim. Her reading had been extensive in the lighter departments of literature, and she was well acquainted with the poets in her own language; but it went no further. It is the soul, shining through the words, that gives to them their great attraction; the spirit, ever equal to the occasion, whether a great or a small one,--a spirit inquisitive and earnest in the little details of life, as when she was in France and England, playful when she describes daily duties,[11] but rising to the call when the roar of cannon is in her ears,[12] or when she reproves her husband for not knowing her better than to think her a coward, and to fear telling her bad news,[13] or when she warns her son that she "would rather he had found his grave in the ocean, or that any untimely death should crop him in his infant years, than see him an immoral, profligate, or graceless child."[14] It was the fortune of the Editor to know the subject of his Memoir only during the last year of her life, and when he was too young fully to comprehend the beauty of her character; but it will be a source of unceasing gratification to him, as long as he may live, that he has been permitted to pay this tribute, however inadequate, to her memory. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 1: Hutchinson, Vol. I. pp. 220 _et seq._] [Footnote 2: As this anecdote rests entirely upon tradition, it has been differently told; and it is here admitted in this form, rather as a characteristic feature of the age, and of the individual, than from any positive reliance upon its authenticity. There are yet transmitted, among the inhabitants of Weymouth and Hingham, many stories of Mr. Smith's application of texts, in a similar manner, to the events of the Revolution, which render the truth of this far from improbable.] [Footnote 3: Page 25.] [Footnote 4: Page 47.] [Footnote 5: Pages 52-74.] [Footnote 6: Page 136.] [Footnote 7: Page 327.] [Footnote 8: Page 368.] [Footnote 9: Pages 163, 172, 175.]