MEMOIR.

It would have unfeignedly surprised the author of the following Essays had she, at any period of her long and quiet life, imagined that a memoir of her would some day be written for perusal by general readers. For with a mind continually at work, Anne Mozley's outward life was exclusively a family and social one. Though writing and literary work had been her occupation for many years, no one out of her own family circle knew or even suspected it. Her mind, when she came down-stairs from the labour of the desk, was so free from apparent preoccupation; her manner was so open, so genial; her interest in home affairs, in the lives of her friends, in public events, in the thoughts and discussions of the day, was so vivid,-that suspicion was disarmed as to her having another world of her own, which for a great part of the day was indeed the world that interested her.

Yet so it was; and to readers who value the instinctive habit of observation, the power of drawing conclusions from slight traits, and a literary knowledge which within its limits was singularly various, this selection of essays from her pen will be acceptable, and it seems right to preface them with a short account of the writer.

Anne Mozley's home was, through nearly her whole life, either in Derby or its neighbourhood. But from the time when she was sixteen she was continually within reach of the intellectual life of Oxford: men who in after-times were to influence their generation, began to be familiar names to her; and the growing acquaintanceship with them was an interest in the home circle. Her elder brother had gone up to Oriel in 1825; and when, after his ordination, he took charge for a few months of the parish of Buckland, near Oxford, his sister Anne kept house for him. This was in 1832; and at that time she became acquainted with the Newmans, an acquaintance that developed into an intimacy that was a lasting pleasure to her through life. The two sisters of Mr Newman became her sisters-in-law, and one of the two was for many years her daily companion at Derby.

Her original work began soon after 1840. It was a time when a great effort was being made to improve the books intended for children and those growing out of childhood, and some small

but very telling stories for children were her first productions. In 1846 a tale of the third century, entitled 'The Captive Maiden,' was published; and a collection of incidents in real life under the name of 'Female Heroism,' came out the same year. But even as early as 1837 she had in another way exercised herself in literature. In that year she brought out a collection of poetry with the title 'Passages from the Poets.' This was followed in 1843 by a volume called 'Church Poetry,' which came to a third edition; and in 1845 by 'Days and Seasons,' which also reached a third edition; and in 1849 by 'Poetry, Past and Present.' The field of selection in all these volumes is wide-Spenser, Cowley, and Sir John Davies stand side by side with Monckton Milnes and "Miss Barrett" (since more widely celebrated as Mrs Browning). The eighteenth century is scantily represented; and yet Miss Mozley knew the poets of that century well, and valued them, especially Gray.

She had not yet attempted criticism; but in 1847 she began to write reviews of books for the Christian Remembrancer,' and continued with a long series of articles of this kind till that review came to an end in 1868. In this series, one on Gray was as sympathetic and fresh as anything which has ever been written about that poet. But meantime she had written in another quarter a review, in some ways, of