SMITH, Eunice

Born circa 1770s; died death date unknown

Eunice Smith, who wrote during the closing decade of the 18th century, was a resident of Ashfield, Massachusetts. Whatever Smith's personal life may have been like is unknown. From her publishing record it is clear that she experienced a good deal of success as a writer of religious tracts. Smith was a forerunner of the multitude of American women who wrote on religious topics throughout the 19th century.

Smith's success is indicated by the multiple editions and printings of her works, not a common phenomenon in the U.S. of the 1790s. Practical Language Interpreted in a Dialogue Between a Believer and an Unbeliever in Two Parts (1793) passed through at least four or five separate editions before 1795, and Some Arguments Against Worldly Mindedness…By Way of a Dialogue or Discourse Between Mary and Martha (1795) saw seven separate printings before its popularity wore thin.

Smith structured her prose as simple dialogues in which one of the speakers, with the encouragement of the other, changes her state of religious doubt or sin for one of blessed assurance and understanding. The dialogues demonstrate the difference in thought between a sinner and a saint and explore the conception of the role of a Christian vis à vis the Savior. Smith uses these dialogues in an attempt to enliven traditional religious subjects and themes. Whether she was familiar with earlier precedents for such use of dialectic dialogue, she did not reveal.

Smith's tropes, reminiscent of the figurative diction of some of the Puritan Fathers and of the revivalist ministers of the 1740s, also makes her conventional material more vivid. She conjures up explicit images of hell, the "horrible pit." Whereas Smith's tropes and style achieve some complexity, the religious beliefs they illustrate are simple. Smith emphasizes uplifting thoughts rather than the subtle uncertainties and repeated self-doubts of her Puritan predecessors. Smith was not concerned with fine theological distinctions or knotty religious issues, but with helping the reader to a calm self-scrutiny based on a simple assurance of God's eternal benevolence toward all sinners. She assures the reader that if the individual fights evil diligently, God will intervene with a saving hand.

Smith's religious tracts are not particularly enticing to the modern reader in their simple, antique pious sentiments. But her works are historically interesting as an indication that the better-known moralist women writers of the 19th century, such as Harriet Beecher Stowe, had deep roots in the small towns of 18th-century New England.

—JACQUELINE HORNSTEIN