=Adelaide Ann Proctor=, =Catherine Fowler Philips=, =Christina Rosetti=, =Mary Blackford Tighe=, and =Caroline Oliphant= have been the authoresses of many poems, still cherished for their beauty and nobility of thought. The United Kingdom has also several woman historians, among them =Catharine Macaulay=, whose “History of England,” in six volumes, appeared in 1763. The love and reverence she was taught from childhood to cherish for the queens of her country induced =Miss Agnes Strickland=, of Roydon Hall, Suffolk, to write her great work “The Lives of the Queens of England.” Its twelve volumes appeared at intervals from 1840 till 1848. In 1850 she began to publish a similar series about the “Lives of the Queens of Scotland,” completing it in eight volumes in 1859. Unresting in her industry, she wrote likewise “The Lives of the Last Four Stuart Princesses,” published in 1872. =Harriet Martineau= too deserves an honorable place among English women of letters. Her series of tales designed as “Illustrations of Political Economy” and “Illustrations of Taxation” brought her at once into great prominence. Later on she produced an amazing quantity of works, relating to the laws of man’s nature and development, mesmerism, travel, and other subjects. * * * * * In American literature woman’s activity began with =Anne Bradstreet=, the daughter of Governor Bradstreet of Massachusetts. To him she dedicated the first volume of poetry published on the Western hemisphere. Printed in 1642, it had the somewhat verbose title: “Several Poems, compiled with great variety of wit and learning, full of delight; wherein especially is contained a complete discourse and description of the four elements, constitutions, ages of man, seasons of the year, together with an exact epitome of the three first monarchies, viz.: the Assyrian, Persian, Greecian, and Roman Commonwealth, from the beginning to the end of their last king, with divers other pleasant and serious poems. By a Gentlewoman of New England.” Three editions of this collection appeared. Of several poems, directed to her husband, we give the following lines: “If ever two were one, then surely we; If ever man were loved by wife, then thee; If ever wife were happy in a man, Compare with me, ye women, if ye can!” =Hannah Adams=, born in 1755, was the first American woman who made literature her profession. Interested in religious controversy she compiled a “View of Religions,” in three parts. After that she wrote “Evidences of Christianity,” a “History of the Jews,” and a “History of New England.” As far as pecuniary matters went, she was, however, singularly unsuccessful, probably from her want of knowledge of business, and ignorance in worldly matters. At the time when she was engaged in compiling her books, so rare were woman-writers in America, that she was looked upon as one of the wonders of her age.