The Repository


Between 1792 and 1794, Judith Sargent Murray published this series in the Massachusetts Magazine, a publication of great acclaim with a circulation that stretched form America's Eastern seaboard across the Atlantic to England. The same year, one month earlier, she had started her "Gleaner" series in which she assumed a male persona. In "The Repository," Judith resumed using the pen name she had adopted for her earliest essays and for her poetry -- the name "Constantia." This series contains some of her very best writing. The essays are philosophical, theological, and lyrical. They remind us that she was, in the beginning of her literary career -- and in her heart -- a poet. As much as we admire her courage to write publicly about the subjects she chose, we must also appreciate her gift as a writer.

Please pay particular attention to "The Repository, No. XVII"; the loyalists involved are Judith's Uncle Epes Sargent and her Aunt Catherine Osborne Sargent of Gloucester. As for No. XVIII, Judith knew full well the pain of missing an absent husband as her own, John Murray, the first Universalist preacher in America, traveled frequently to spread the "good news" of Universalism.

 

The Repository, No. I
[on the power and influence of the written word, published September, 1792]

The Repository, No. II
[on death, dissimulation, and spring, published October, 1792]

The Repository, No. III
[on what the author looks for in a friend, published November, 1792]

The Repository, No. IV
[on overcoming criticism, published December, 1792]

The Repository, No. V
[on God as "the Vine," a Universalist essay, published January, 1793]

The Repository, No. VI
[on friendship, especially between women and men, published February, 1793]

The Repository, No. VII
[on the "spirit of genuine philanthropy" in the "religion of Jesus," published March, 1793]

The Repository, No. VIII
[on the author's regretting her inability to care for more orphaned children, published April, 1793.]

The Repository, No. IX
[on not yielding to public criticism, published May, 1793]

The Repository, No. X
[on the strength of friendship, published June, 1793]

The Repository, No. XI
[on maintaining serenity, published August, 1793]

The Repository, No. XII
[on the basis of Christianity, a Universalist essay, published September, 1793]

The Repository, No. XIII
[on nature, its ability to "expand and elevate the mind," and God's plan, published October, 1793]

The Repository, No. XIV
[on the rights of living creatures to be free from harm by humankind, published November, 1793]

The Repository, No. XV
[on the freedom of living things and immortality, published December, 1793]

The Repository, No. XVI
[on how women who have given birth out of wedlock should not be ruined or abandoned, nor should their children, published January, 1794]

The Repository, No. XVII
[on condemning violence against Loyalists to the British crown, and encouraging a peaceful resolution with Britain rather than war; written in 1775, published February, 1794]

The Repository, No. XVIII
[on the loneliness caused by an absent husband, published March, 1794]

The Repository, No. XIX
[on the serenity of a deep and "equal" friendship, published April, 1794]

The Repository, No. XX
[on abolishing the practice of duelling, published May 1794]

The Repository, No. XXI
[on the death of an infant sister, published June, 1794]

The Repository, No. XXII
[on the death of a close friend, published July, 1794]

The Repository, No. XXIII
[on convincing a dying friend of God's universal salvation, published August, 1794]

The Repository, No. XXIV
[on the joy of motherhood, published September, 1794]

The Repository, No. XXV
[on curiosity, especially in females, as an admirable trait, published October, 1794]

The Repository, No. XXVI
[on facing death with calmness and faith, published November, 1794]

The Repository, No. XXVII
[on the dangers of praise and self-love, published December, 1794]


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