with the range she occupied. Her only limits were nature, principle, and truth. With these, combined with her song-inspiration, who could fail of conviction and admiration! Of the perfect transparency and lofty bearing of the poetry of Mrs. Hemans, much might be said; but from the sketch already presented, the fact is deemed inferrable. In these attributes she has not been surpassed, if equalled, by any writer of the loftiest school. None could be more alive than she was to the respectability (so to speak) of all that reason discovers and religion reveals of the spiritual meanings of the universe around us, in the least as well as the grandest of its parts. In introducing this volume to the public, the writer would say, that the space allotted forbids a more elaborate notice of the genius and fame of her who sang, "Thus let my memory be with you, my friends ' Kindly and gently, but as of one For whom 'tis well to be fled and gone As of a bird from a chain unbound, As of a wanderer whose home is found — So let it be!" He would only add, that he feels that in getting out this volume, his office is as one who throws "water upon ancient paintings, reviving their forms and colors, like any sound or circumstance reviving images of the past." |