hless attention, and at the close broke out with
these words--"It is very grand indeed!--but how much finer it would have
been, mamma, if he had said at the close, that God had measured out all
those waters with the hollow of His hand!" On another occasion she was
explaining to her eight-year-old boy the meaning of the title of a story
he was reading, "The Atheist." His argument was real and ready: "Not
believe in a God, mamma? Who does he expect made the world and his
own body?"

IV.

WORK AND FRIENDS.

The plentiful contributions from her pen were becoming increasingly
popular, and it may be added increasingly useful. There is no doubt that
she was a distinct moral power for good.

As almost every one thinks that he or she can compose poetry, and that
better than others, it often happens that in a prize poem competition
there is no lack of persons ready to enter the lists. So it was when a
patriotic Scotchman offered a prize of L50 for the best poem on "The
meeting of Wallace and Bruce." The number of competitors was astounding,
and the mass of matter sent in overwhelming, one production being as
long as "Paradise Lost." Quality prevailed over quantity, and the award
was made to Mrs. Hemans. This was not the only occasion on which she was
adjudged the prize in a competition. In 1821 she obtained that awarded
by the Royal Society of Literature for the best poem on "Dartmoor."

One of her poems, which was destined to be almost more useful than any
of the others, was "The Sceptic." A reviewer's testimony to the
elevating influence of the work, after complaining of the grave defect
in some of the most popular writers of the day, in that "they are not
sufficiently attentive to the moral dignity of the performances,"
concludes with this encomium on Mrs. Hemans' work:--"With the promise of
talents not inferior to any, and far superior to most of them, the
author before us is not only free from every stain, but breathes all
moral beauty and loveliness; and it will be a memorable coincidence if
the era of a woman's sway in literature shall become co-eval with the
return of its moral purity and elevation." A more gratifying testimony
to the worth of "The Sceptic" was given in a visit of a stranger to Mrs.
Hemans. It occurred many years after "The Sceptic" was published;
indeed, a very short time before her death. The visitor was told that
she was unable to see him, as she was only just recovering from an
illness. He