[We hardly know how to give our readers an idea of the intense interest
which this biographical sketch has excited in our mind; but we are
persuaded they will thank us for adopting it in our columns. The details
are somewhat abridged from No. LXXXII. of the _Quarterly Review_, (just
published), where they appear in the first article, headed "Amir Khan,
and other Poems: the remains of Lucretia Maria Davidson," &c., published
at New York, in the present year. Prefixed to these "remains" is a
biographical sketch, which forms the basis of the present memoir, and
from the Poems are selected the few specimens with which it is
illustrated.--ED.]

Lucretia Maria Davidson was born September 27, 1808, at Plattsburgh, on
Lake Champlain. She was the second daughter of Dr. Oliver Davidson, and
Magaret his wife. Her parents were in straitened circumstances, and
it was necessary, from an early age, that much of her time should be
devoted to domestic employments: for these she had no inclination, but
she performed them with that alacrity which always accompanies good
will; and, when her work was done, retired to enjoy those intellectual
and imaginative, pursuits in which her whole heart was engaged. This
predilection for studious retirement she is said to have manifested at
the early age of four years. Reports, and even recollections of this
kind, are to be received, the one with some distrust, the other with
some allowance; but when that allowance is made, the genius of this
child still appears to have been as precocious as it was extraordinary.
Instead of playing with her schoolmates, she generally got to some
secluded place, with her little books, and with pen, ink, and paper;
and the consumption which she made of paper was such as to excite the
curiosity of her parents, from whom she kept secret the use to which she
applied it. If any one came upon her retirement, she would conceal or
hastily destroy what she was employed upon; and, instead of satisfying