in literary skill or power, not less deserving are the latter who,
with little prospect of reward, bore the burden and the heat of
the day. This early stage in a nation's literature has, indeed, an
interest and a value of its own, which only meet with due
appreciation from a judicious and grateful posterity. If it has
not the rich, warm splendor of the later morning, it has the
welcome promise of the dawn, and a tender beauty of its own.

In this band of pioneers Mrs. Leprohon must be conceded a
distinguished place. None of them has employed rare gifts of head
and heart to better purpose; none of them had a wider range of
sympathy; none of them did more willing service, with the purest
motives, in all good causes. And, it may be added, none of them
was more happy in attaining, during life, the admiration and
friendship of a large though select circle of every creed and race
among her compatriots. It is in order to place in the hands of
those who thus loved and honored her a memorial of what she was at
her best, intellectually and morally, that this little volume has
been prepared. It contains the emotional record of a blameless and
beautiful life, the outcome of a mind that thought no evil of any
one, but overflowed with loving kindness to all. Before pointing
out, however, what we consider the salient qualities in Mrs.
Leprohon's poetry, it may be well to give our readers a brief
sketch of her too short career.

Rosanna Eleanor Mullins was born in the city of Montreal in the
year 1832. It is almost unnecessary to state that she was educated
at the Convent of the Congregation of Notre Dame, so numerous are
her affectionate tributes to the memories of dear friends
associated with that institution. Long before her education was