‘The little Republic.’
Sixty years ago a little book of two hundred and twenty-eight pages was published by a lady who soon after became, and for some years was, a resident of
Medford, the preceptress of the famous Mystic Hall Seminary,
Mrs. Eliza T. P. Smith.
In her preface she says:—
Most of the articles in this little volume were kindly contributed by the respective writers expressly for this purpose, and these writers include some of the most distinguished in the land. ... The editor has interspersed some trifles of her own, which she hopes may be leniently regarded.
The volume is intended as an agreeable and instructive Miscellany, for presentation, free from [p. 35] all sectarian prejudices, and such an one as may contribute to the moral and intellectual progress of Young America.
The title of the book is ‘The Little Republic Original Articles by Various Hands,’ edited by
Mrs. T. P. Smith, from the press of
Wiley &
Putnam, New York, and is dedicated, on a special page, to her father.
The initial article is an ode of one hundred and twenty lines, entitled ‘Justice,’ by
John Quincy Adams, former
President of the
United States.
Mrs. Sigourney,
Ex-Governor Briggs,
Bayard Taylor,
Elihu Burritt, and eminent clergymen (including
Dr. S. F. Smith, author of ‘America’), are among the twenty-one contributors.
The ‘trifles’ mentioned number thirteen, the first being fifteen pages of prose on Self-Culture, and the last in verse, as follows:—
