Such were some of the religious influences which surrounded Mrs. Prentiss during the first twenty years of her life, and which helped to form her character.  She was also strongly affected, especially while passing from girlhood into early womanhood, by the literary influences of the day.  Poetry and fiction were her delight.  She was very fond of Wordsworth, Tennyson, and Longfellow; while the successive volumes of Dickens were read by her with the utmost avidity.  Mrs. Payson’s house was a good deal visited by scholars and men of culture.  Her eldest daughter had already become somewhat widely known by her writings.  In the extent, variety and character of her attainments she was, in truth, a marvel.  Indeed, she quite overshadowed the younger sister by her learning and her highly intellectual conversation.  And yet Elizabeth also attracted no little attention from some who had been first drawn to the house by their friendship for Louisa. [12] Among her warmest admirers was Mr. John Neal, then well known as a man of letters; he predicted for her a bright career as an author.  Still, it was her personal character that most interested the visitors at her mother’s house.  This may be illustrated by an extract from a letter of Mr. Hamlin to a friend of the family in New York, written in April, 1838, while he was their temporary pastor.  Mr. Hamlin has since become known throughout the Christian world by his remarkable career as a missionary in Turkey, and as organiser of Robert College.  A few months after the letter was written he set sail for Constantinople, accompanied by his wife, whose early death was the cause of so much grief among all who knew her. [13] I should like to write a long letter about dear Elizabeth.  I have seen her more since Louisa left and I love her more.  She has a peculiar charm for me.  I think she has a quick and excellent judgment, refined sensibilities, and an instinctive perception of what is fit and proper....  It seems to me there is a great deal of purity—­of the spirituelle—­about her feelings.  But I can not tell you exactly what it is that makes me think so highly of her.  It is a nameless something resulting from her whole self, from her sweet face and mouth, her eye full of love and soul, her form and motion.  I do not think she likes me much, I have paid so much attention to Louisa and so little to herself.  Yet she is not one of those who claim attention, but rather shrinks from it.  She may have faults of which I have no knowledge.  But I am charmed with everything I have seen of her.

How strange are the chance coincidences of human life!  In another letter to the same friend in New York, in which Mr. Hamlin refers in a similar manner to Elizabeth, occur these words: 

In a few weeks I hope to be in Dorset, among the Green Mountains, where my thoughts and feelings have their centre above all places on this earth.  I wish you could be present at my wedding there on the third of September.