LYDIA MARIA FRANCIS, afterward Mrs. Child, was born at Medford, Massachusetts, February 11th, 1802. She is the author of numerous novels and essays, but her work as an agitator for the abolition of slavery engrossed her attention and prevented the full realization of her possibilities in literature. Her romance of “Philothea,” published in 1835, gives in its chapter on “The Banquet at Aspasia’s” an excellent example of the Platonic essay as it was imitated by Landor and others in the early part of the nineteenth century. Mrs. Child died October 20th, 1880.