COTTI'N, SOPHIE RESTAIID, born in 1773, was brought up at Bordeaux by her mother, who was an accomplished and well-informed woinao. At the age of seventeen oho married Mr. Cottin, a wealthy Parisian banker, with whom she resided iu the capital. Three years after, she lost her husband, which circumstance, added to the horrors of the revolution, induced her to retire to it cottage in the valley D'Oreay. To beguile her solitude she began to write a novel, Claire d'Albe,' which, notwithstanding the good iuteations of the authoress, whose object was to point out tho dangers of seduction, had tho unfortunate effect of enlisting the sympathies in favour of the heroine, ivho is guilty of adultery—a tendency however common to many, and some of the best French novels. In Madam Cottin this was only an error of judgment and inexperience, for her heart was pure, and her sentiments and conduct strictly virtuous. It is said that the publication of ' Claire d'Albe' was owing to a desire to assiat a person of her acquaintance, who, being proscribed during the revolution, stood in need of money to effect his escape ; Madam Cottin hastily. offered the sheets, which she had been writiug for her amusement, to a bookseller, and gave the produce to the fugitive. She followed
' Claire d'Alhe ' by 'Malvioa,' Atnelie Mansfield,' and ' Mathilde,' a tale of the Crusades, which had great popularity. Her last and in many respects her best work was ' Elizabeth, or the Exiles in Siberia,' tho characters and sentiments of which are most unexceptionable, the action well conducted, and tho termination satisfactory. ' Eliza beth' is accordingly a work, which, for a long succession of years, was generally put into the hands of young persons studying French, and has been translated into most European languages. The style of Elizabeth' is considered more carefully correct and finished than that of her other novels. Madam Cuttin, who was a Protestant, and had attentively studied the Scriptures, had begun a work intended to demonstrate the truth of the Christian religion by its sympathy with the beat sentiments and affections uf the heart. She had also begun a work on °due.ttlou. She did not live to fiuish either : she died in August 1807, at the age of thirty-four. Most of her works were pub lished anonymously. They were collected and published at Paris, in 5 vole. Svo, 1817.