From The Churchman (N. Y.) of August 25th, 1859.

We copy from the Albany Atlas and Argus of the 15th inst., an exquisitely written and perfectly truthful notice from the pen of Bishop HORATIO POTTER, of the late Mrs. JOHN V. L. PRUYN of Albany. Mrs. Pruyn was one of those beautiful characters, whose refinement of manner, sweetness of temper, intelligence and sterling good sense, won the admiration of every person who had the pleasure of her acquaintance.

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From the Albany Atlas and Argus of August 15th, 1859.

TRIBUTE TO THE LATE MRS. PRUYN.

The article which we publish in another column, commemorating the virtues of this estimable lady, will be recognized, not only from its initials, but from many of the incidents referred to, as proceeding from the pen of the Rt. Rev. HORATIO POTTER, Provisional Bishop of New York. We are warranted in saying that it would have appeared several weeks ago, but for the absence of the Bishop on an extended visitation of his Diocese. Time however has not dimmed the memory of the virtues it commemorates, and it has lost none of its freshness by delay.

THE LATE MRS. JOHN V. L. PRUYN.

After the several beautiful and touching tributes to the late Mrs. JOHN V. L. PRUYN, I should think it almost superfluous to add another word in regard to her character, were it not that during the most critical years of her life, I stood in a very intimate and sacred relation to her; and saw her in all those circumstances of joy and of sorrow, which are best fitted to try the temper of the mind, and to lay open the inmost recesses of the heart.

Surely the Pastor who Baptized her, and admitted her to the Holy Communion of the Church, and joined her in Holy Matrimony to the man of her choice, and received her children at the Font, and buried all but one of those who are departed; who has had the happiness of numbering her and her husband among his most intimate friends for nearly twenty years, and who, on looking back, sees that many of the happiest days, and most

valuable privileges of his life, are associated with their presence or their kindness; may be pardoned for lingering around the places which she made bright, and giving expression imperfectly, yet affectionately and gratefully, to some of the thoughts that crowd upon his mind.

When I first came to know her well, she was just leaving the place of her education, and beginning to take some part in the social engagements of the circles to which her family and friends belonged. But it was scarcely possible to see much of her, without perceiving that nothing was further from her thoughts than the idea so readily taken up by some young ladies, that she had completed her education. Without ostentation, without the least affectation of scholarship, without any of that rage for learned talk which detracts so much from the natural softness and modesty of woman, she had, amid the gaiety and freshness of youth, a fund of good sense, an earnestness of purpose toward mental improvement, and a depth of feeling, which were capable of

being fully appreciated only by those who knew her most intimately. She was then continuing her study of modern languages; and during all the subsequent vicissitudes of her life, whether amid the excitement of her approaching marriage, or the cares that attend the first setting up of a house, in periods of foreign travel, or when sickness came to darken her happy home, I suspect there was scarcely ever a time up to the last weeks of her life, when she was without some regular study, which was to her a leading object of interest and attention.

And yet should any one infer from this statement, that Mrs. Pruyn was one of those wives who allow the tastes, not to say the vanities of a literary character to supersede devotion to the welfare of home and the happiness of husband, such person would wholly misconceive what was most beautiful and exalted in her life. Kept much within doors by the delicacy of her health, she was singularly thoughtful and inventive in regard to all those things which touch the comfort