Letters of Lydia Maria Child, with a biographical introduction by John G. Whittier and an appendix by Wendell Phillips.

LETTERS.
TO REV. C ONVERS FRAE.NCIS.
NORRIDGEWOCK. [Maine], June 5, 1817.
MY DEAR BPOTTEP,1 - I have been busily engaged in reading "Paradise Lost." Homer hurried
me along with rapicl impetuosity; every passion that
he portrayed I felt: I loved, hated, and resented, just
as he inspired mne! But when I read Milton, I felt
elevated "' above this visible diurnal sphere." I
could not but admire such astonishing grandeur of
description, such heavenly sublimity of style. I never
read a poem that displayed a more prolific fancy, or
a more vigorous genius. But don't you think that
Ailton asserts the superiority of his own sex in rather
too lordly a nmanner? Thus, when Eve is conversing with Adalm, she is made to say, -' y author and disposer, what thon bid'st
Unargtl'd I obey; so God ordained.
God is thy law, thou mine: to know no more
Is woman's happiest knowledge, and her praise."
Perhaps you will smile at the freedom with which
I express nmy opinion concerning the books wvhich I
have been reading. I acknowledge it might have the
appearzance of pedantry, if I were writing to any one
but a brother; when I write to you, I feel perfectly
i This letter, the earliest received by the compilers, was written when
BMiss Francis was fifteen years-old.