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During her stay at Redesdale, Mrs. Hemans was continually visited by the benevolent Mrs. Whateley,

delicate mind. It is part of a letter written by her, a few months after Mrs. Hemans's death: :-"It is a continual cause of thankfulness to me that I was so wonderfully supported, even to the last sad hour; sad it must ever be to me; it is a thing not to wear off. Oh no! with me it seems to deepen daily - remembrances grow dearer. My thought of her is like some hidden, treasured thing, which no power could win from me. I feel it would be downright selfishness to wish her back: it may well be said this was not her rest. She ever seemed to me as a wanderer from her Heavenly Father's mansion, who knew too much of that home to seek a resting-place here! She often said to me, 'I feel like a tired child — wearied, and longing to mingle with the pure in heart.' At other times she would say, 'I feel as if I were sitting with Mary at the feet of my Redeemer, hearing the music of His voice, and learning of Him to be meek and lowly.' And then she would say, 'Oh, Anna, do not you love your kind Saviour? The plan of Redemption was indeed a glorious one; humility was indeed the crowning work. I am like a quiet babe at His feet, and yet my spirit is full of His strength. When any body speaks of His love to me, I feel as if they were too slow; my spirit can mount alone with Him into those blissful realms, with far more rapidity.'

"My heart gets too full for utterance when I think of her affectionate manner to me. She often told me that she believed I had been sent to her in answer to her earnest prayer, and said that, whatever might be her fate, I might always feel that my being with her had not been in vain. These were her words; and the Searcher of hearts only knows how thankful, yet humbled, I feel for such an inestimable blessing. It is one for which I feel I shall have to render an account. May it prove a blessed one! I wish I could tell you more of what she said, but my language is so poor, so weak, that when I would try, it is as if I were robbing her words of their brightness; but then I know that none can speak as she did. These are not words of course; no, I can truly say my ties to earth are weakened, because she is no longer here."

whose gentle sympathy was a balm to her heart. The true brotherly kindness of her excellent friend, Colonel D'Aquilar-his indefatigable and thoughtful attentions, prompted as well by his own generous regard as by the affectionate anxiety of his sister, Mrs. Lawrence, were a source of comfort, the consciousness of which must be its own reward, as words are inadequate to do justice to it. And the same must be said of the disinterested zeal and solicitude of Mrs. Hemans's medical friends, Dr. Graves and Dr. Croker.

Not long after her removal into the country, her sympathies were sorrowfully excited by an event which plunged into the deepest distress the family with which she was most intimate, and deprived herself, individually, of a valuable and paternal friend ;

the death, after a very short illness, of the late J. C. Graves, Esq. Most touchingly did she lament her own inability to minister at such a moment to the griefs of those for whom she felt so sincerely. "Again and again have I thought of you," were the words of her letter on this occasion, to one of his afflicted daughters, "and wished that my health allowed me to be near you, that I might make some little efforts to comfort and sustain. Few can more deeply enter into all you have suffered than myself, in whose mind the death-bed scene of my beloved and excellent mother is still as mournfully distinct as the week when that bereavement occurred, which threw me to struggle upon a harsh and bitter world. But, dearest C., there comes a time when we feel that God has drawn us nearer to Himself by the chastening influence of

such trials, and when we thankfully acknowledge that a higher state of spiritual purification - the great object, I truly believe, of all our earthly discipline has been the blessed result of our calamities. I am sure that in your pure and pious mind this result will ere long take place, and that a deep and reconciling calm will follow the awakening sense of God's parental dealings with the spirit."

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The following words are from a note dated January 27th:-"I cannot possibly describe to you the subduing effect that long illness has produced upon my mind. I seem to have been passing through the valley of the shadow of death,' and all the vivid interests of life look dim and pale around me. I am still at the Archbishop's palace, where I receive kindness truly heart-warm. Never could anything be more cordial than the strong interest he and his amiable wife have taken in my recovery. My dear Henry has enjoyed his holidays here greatly, as I should have done too (he has been so mild and affectionate), but for constant pain and sickness."

The future destination of this "dear Henry," now of an age to enter upon the active duties of life, and work out his own path to independence, had been for some time a subject which pressed heavily upon the mind of his anxious mother. It may, therefore, well be imagined with what unspeakable joy and gratitude

1 Redesdale is not, properly speaking, the Archbishop's palace, but his country-seat; but there were old and dear associations attached to the former name, which made it very natural that Mrs. Hemans should use it in connexion with "kindness heartwarm."

she hailed the arrival of a boon so utterly unexpected as a letter from Sir Robert Peel, (expressed in terms no less honourable to the writer, than gratifying to the receiver), appointing her son to a clerkship in the Admiralty, and accompanied by a most munificent donation, which, emanating from such a quarter, could create no feelings but those of heartfelt thankfulness, unmingled with any alloy of false delicacy or mistaken pride.

Mrs. Hemans was at first entirely at a loss to trace the channel through whose means this stream of bounty had found its way to her retirement; but it was with less of surprise than of grateful pleasure, that she at length discovered it to have been through the affectionate exertions of her friend Mrs. Lawrence, that an interest so powerful had been awakened in her favour. The joyful excitement of a happiness so unlooked for the relief of having such a weight of anxiety thus lifted from her heart-roused her for a time from the almost lethargic languor into which her feeble frame was gradually sinking, and her energies broke forth once more, 66 as the tender grass springeth out of the earth by clear shining after rain." She exerted herself to write many letters to impart the glad tidings to her friends, speaking invariably of this noble act of kindness as having filled her mind with joy and thankfulness; as being "a sunshine without a cloud." Again must her own words be quoted from one of the last of her letters to Mrs. Lawrence :—

"Well, my dear friend, I hope my life, if it be spared, may now flow back into its native course of quiet thoughtfulness. You know in how rugged a channel

the poor little stream has been forced, and through what rocks it has wrought its way; and it is now longing for repose in some still valley. It has ever been one of my regrets that the constant necessity of providing sums of money to meet the exigencies of the boys' education, has obliged me to waste my mind in what I consider mere desultory effusions:

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·‘Pouring myself away,

As a wild bird, amidst the foliage, turns

That which within him thrills, and beats and burns,
Into a fleeting lay.'

My wish ever was to concentrate all my mental energy in the production of some more noble and complete work; something of pure and holy excellence (if there be not too much presumption in the thought), which might permanently take its place as the work of a British poetess. I have always, hitherto, written as if in the breathing times of storms and billows. Perhaps it may not even yet be too late to accomplish what I wish, though I sometimes feel my health so deeply prostated, that I cannot imagine how I am ever to be raised up again. But a greater freedom from those cares, of which I have been obliged to bear up under the whole responsibility, may do much to restore me; and though my spirits are greatly subdued by long sickness, I feel the powers of my mind in full maturity. The very idea of possessing such friends as yourself and your dear, noble brother, is a fountain of strength and hope. I am very, very weary of writing so long; yet still feel as if I had a thousand things to say to you.

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"With regard to my health, I can only tell you that

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