Abstract

Miss Aikin's Correspondence

The article focuses on the book "Correspondence of Wm. Ellery Channing, D.D., and Lucy Aikin From 1826 to 1812," edited by A.L. Le Breton. It states that this correspondence is well worth publication, for though letters of both writers, Lucy Aikin and William Ellery Channing, are undoubtedly often dull, they are also in many respects interesting. The correspondence is, in short, exactly what one might expect from the character of its authors. Neither Aikin nor Channing was endowed with any gift, which makes a good letter-writer. Neither of them had touch of literary grace nor any sense of humor. Of the two, Aikin is the better writer. But even her best letters read like chapters from a work on the religious and political condition of England.