enacting."

A visit to Scotland in 1829 was a great event in her life. She seemed to
gain fresh energy and vigour. Edinburgh was ready with a hearty welcome.
Admiration was in danger of degenerating into adulation; as, for
example, when a literary man, on his introduction to her, asked "whether
a bat might be allowed to appear in the presence of a nightingale." On
another occasion a man of eminence in the book world was honoured with a
visit from her. Afterwards he was asked whether he had chanced to see
the most distinguished English poetess of the day. "He made no answer,"
continued the narrator, "but taking me by the arm, in solemn silence,
led me into the back parlour, where stood a chair in the centre of the
room, isolated from the rest of the furniture: and pointing to it, said,
with the profoundest reverence, in a low earnest tone. 'There _she_ sat,
sir, on that chair!'" One of the brightest parts of this bright tour was
that spent with Sir Walter Scott. The recollection of her walks and
talks with the great man was always a treasured memory. And so were the
words with which he parted from her. "There are some whom we meet, and
should like ever after to claim as kith and kin; and _you_ are one
of these."

In 1830 Mrs. Hemans published her volume of _Songs of the Affections._
The principal of the poems, "A Spirit's Return," was suggested as the
result of a favourite amusement--that of winding up the evenings by
telling ghost stories. A discussion arose as to the feelings with which
the presence and the speech of a visitant from another world would be
most likely to impress the person so visited. Mrs. Hemans contended that
the predominant sensation would partake of awe and rapture, and that the
person visited must thenceforward and for ever be inevitably separated
from this world and its concerns--that the soul which had once enjoyed
so strange and spiritual communion must be raised by its experience too
high for common grief to perplex or common joy to enliven.

"The music of another land hath spoken.
No after-sound is sweet; this weary thirst!--
And I have heard celestial fountains burst.
What _here_ shall quench it?"

IX.

HOME IN THE LAKE COUNTRY.

A visit to the Lakes of Westmoreland in 1830 was a source of great
enjoyment to Mrs. Hemans. The beauty of the district was one attraction,
but the prospect of sharing the society of Mr. Wordsworth was a greater
attraction. Weari