Phenix Gazette

The accounts of the early indications of talent in persons who have attained a great name in literature are often exaggerated, and may generally be suspected of being so. The following testimony in regard to Mme. de Stael, from a contemporary memoir writer, is therefore rare and valuable. It will be gratifying to the admirers of that distinguished woman, to see in these juvenile efforts, the manifest station of that goodness of heart for which she will ever be honored. The date of this notice is in 1778.

"While Mr. Necker passes decrees which cover him with glory, and will render his administration eternally dear to France,—while Madame Necker renounces all the sweets of society to devote herself to the establishment of The Charity, their daughter, a girl 12 years old, but who already evinces talents above her age, amuses herself with writing little comedies, after the manner of the semi dramas of M. de Saint Marc. She has just completed one in two acts, entitled the 'Inconsistencies of the Life led at Paris,' which is not only astonishing for her age, but which appears even superior to her models. It is a mother who has two daughters, one brought up in all the simplicity of rural life, the other amid the grand airs of the capital. The latter is the mother's favorite from the talents and graces she displays, but this mother falling into misfortunes from the loss of a law-suit, she soon learns which of the two is in reality the most deserving of her tenderness and affection. The scenes of this little drama are well connected together. the characters are well supported, and the development of the intrigue is natural and full of interest. M. Marmontel who saw it performed in the drawing room at St. Ouen, the country house of M. Necker, by the author and some of her young companions, was affected even to tears."

Mme. de Stael wrote and published her celebrated 'Letters on the works and Character of Rosseau,' at the age of twenty.