New-York tribune., 1905-01-28
Il PURITAN LADY.
Life in Ne1c-EngIand a Hundred
Years Ago.
MEMORIALS OF MARY WILDER WHITE. B!
Elizabeth Amelia Dwight. Edited by Mar!
Wilder Tileston. Svo, pp 400. The Everett
Press Company.

Elizabeth Amelia Dwight, Edited by Mary
Press Company.
This family record is Of interest to the out
slider chiefly IN its picture Of a beautiful young
wonan's character developed by the intellectual
and religious atmosphere of New-England
hundred years ago. Mary Wilder was a
heavenly Puritan, the most exquisite type which
the early English refugees contributed to our
national life. The sweetness and humility of
her nature. the vigor Of her mind and her ex-
ceeding loveliness of person made her a marked
figure in old Concord and traditions there
TO this day. So attractive in many particulars
is this narrative that we must doubly regret the
absence of The homely details of existence in
that place and period, details which might have
made the book genuine bit Of social history.
Our first glimpse of Mary is in charmingly
quaint and formal letter written to her mother
'Hon'd Mad'm"-when she was only nine. 20
dearr' exclaims the small maiden, what thing
1t is to disobey ones parents" And she adds:
What a fine book Mrs. Chapone's Letters is,'
She was never long parted from book-in that
she was true Concordian. A cousin near her age
used to relate in HIS nineties how in their child
hood she would tell over to him Mrs. Radcliffe's
novels which she had previously devoured. Sit
ting the stairs she would make little dramas
Of them. personating each character as she
spoke and giving every detail that each
story would be continued days more.
She particularly happy in rendering The
Mysteries of Udolpho"-so powerful, indeed,
that after an evening of recitation the little boy
was afraid to be alone in the dark. 1t is evident
from her letters that all her life she a
reader OF the best books available-some of
them good that can but wonder that they
did not train her to more originality of thought
and expression. Her undOubted mental powers
are most apparent in the passages in her letters
which show yearning for a wider scope for
woman's brains and work than then
corded to her. Once twice she contributed to
the Monthly Anthology" OF 1903 conventional
little papers, thus introduced: Mr.. Editor:
Should you be disposed to admit into your
elegant publication the correspondence of two
obscure females who have hitherto written
merely for their own amusement. and who still
seek concealment, you will probably receive sew
eral letters from Constance and Cornelia." Con-
stance was that remarkable Mary Emerson who
sibyl and prophecies to her nephews, Ralph
Waldo Emerson and his brothers. The pages
devoted to this strange and brilliant creature
are among the most interesting in this volume.
Only thirty-one years did the fair saint, Mary
Wilder live in this world but she was twice a
wife and the mother of three children. The
most romantic episodes of that short life
concerned with her marriage, when she
seventeen. TO handsome young French planter
OF the West Indies. who living temporarily
as a refugee in Concord. Antoine Schalk-
wyck Classe Courcelle was youth of good fam
ily. and he managed to recover some OF the
property sacrificed in the West Indian up
heavaIs Of the period. Three months after their
marriage they set sail for Guadeloupe only to
find themselves in a nest of negro insurrection.
massacre and horror. Mary's adoring bride
groom died Of fever within a few weeks. and
she barely escaped death from the same disease.
Tenderly cared for by his family, she fed from
one island to another:
While she was lying Ill in bed with the fever. her
husbands brother came into to the room. and hastily
street, almost without time to speak. shock OF
an earthquake was coming, and they went into the
in the West indies waiting for an opportTnftv ito 70
return TO RmeTca sittna with the paies IN tbe 10
parlor they heard a turnult In the streets Then
went out. It was the rising OF the negroes. soon
I after that of Of st Domingo The ladies' were put
was anxious m at to & Eet to Aeca but there was no
one going from the other side over a rough. hilly
country she was carried in sedan chair. while
sword in hand. as they passed the camphres OF the
The gfrl-ws1ow fingered through a year of
misery before she could find an opportunity to
return 10 her mother Her husbands family
were almost too devoted TO her. for resolving
10 keep her n the island and marry her TO a
french general. they wers foolish enough TO in
tercept ali her home letters. 1t was not until
suspicion OF this behavior led to the CONVEYANCE
OF a letter to her by the hand OF a friend that
she received consolation and advice from, the
home for which she Ionged
her second marriage was an ideal one and
her later years were all happy. SANITY ana
benehoeni Few women have ever been so loved
by their friends as was this Mary One of these
friends by the way. Elizabeth Lee, once adj
dressed 10 her a letter worth quoting here az the
opinion OF an intellectual woman OF high stand