A correspondent

“ With the consciousness that she has scattered the seeds of many pleasures in the world, with a full sense of what ought by all to be enjoyed, and of the human capacity to enjoy, it is not a little annoying to see Miss Landon persevere in maliciously contrasting the actual with the ideal—in deprecating what is, for the mere sake of glorifying what is not. ”

“ The rich painting, the poetical description, the happy portraiture of manners, the reading and the knowledge, the grace and the tenderness, were to be expected—but the insight into motive, the penetration into the mysteries of character, the revealings of the inner world, the firm-handed dissection of the philosophy of life, ever curious in the speculations struck out, though often erring in the judgment, and always setting man's worst foot foremost—these are triumphs of her pen that few could have anticipated. ”

“ It is all a mistake. Enthusiasm is yet alive, and is likely to live, and wears a sunnier aspect every year. Did not L. E. L. look fondly and delightedly upon his eager and glowing face the other day, when he was seen, early and late, cordially gathering up welcome votes in support of her brother as a candidate for the literary office which he is so worthy to fill? The history of the last few weeks should convince Miss Landon that active gratitude and generous enthusiasm are not among the absentee virtues whom we are obligingly invited to mourn for. ”

“ Was she to go on writing troubadours and golden violets all her days—apostrophising loves, memories, hopes, and fears, for ever and ever, in scattered songs and uncompleted stanzas, and running the chance of marring the first sweetness of the string, weakening her past music by the monotony of the note? Yet how stop, when the pen appeared the only safety-valve to keep sensation and longings after the visionary—the only link connecting her with the remote, which she desired, as an escape from the impending, which she dreaded! ”

“ There seemed no help for it; like Pope, she "was born for nothing but to write ;" and "write, write, write," forms, as she has herself remarked, the history of her life. Luckily, however, there were a few envious and evil-natured persons in the world, and some good speedily began to grow out of their jealousy, spleen, and detraction. L. E. L. had her enemies; what would the most invincible genius be without them? She was reviled, ridiculed—her poetry was called sing-song, her sentiment "namby-pamby." ”

“ Nothing could have been better qualified to make her feel her strength, to enable her to put it forth, to win her from words to things, from dreams to realities. The positive experience of a hard contact with the actual, was startling and disagreeable; the chill of a sudden plunge into society, after a revel in ideal luxuries, was like the shock of a cold bath ”

“ Landon's recent election, we may adduce two testimonies, called forth by the occasion, of the estimation in which his sister is held. We have reason to know that the expression of Sir Robert Peel was—"I am happy to mark my sense of Miss Landon's character and talents by voting for her brother;" while Mr. Hope, the son of the author of "Anastasius," observed—"It is gratifying to have the means occasionally of showing both the reverence we feel for genius, and the gratitude we owe to those who exercise it on our behalf." ”

“ We hope it may induce her to feel that there is a sunny side of life, and that she can at any time cross over to the dark one when she is tired of the light. It is never too late to despond, and wise people ought not to be in a hurry. ”

“ The truth is, she has been writing incessantly since she first began to write; and sitting for one's picture is very like sitting still and doing nothing—which by no means suits her genius and temperament.
Miss Landon is the first and greatest, if not the only example, of the achievement of an enduring and universal fame, in the character of an Initialist. All literary England was ringing with her music and her praises before her name had transpired at all. Stanzas had been inserted, and books published, ere then, without a name ”

“ Yet they became known almost at once. How immediately they fixed themselves in the memory, and how deeply they took root!—even while their unnamed owner was but a mere contributor to a literary journal, without the questionable distinction of having produced a single volume of verses. It was as impossible, after a very little while, to mistake the initials L. E. L. for any other three letters in the alphabet, as to confound the name of Byron with that of Campbell, or Moore's with Wordsworth's. ”