tle scraps of paper from your desk. Do
you know that I _lived_ on them ("The School" and "My Expectation is
from Thee") and was greedy to get the book that I might read them again
and again. And behold, the volume is full of the things I have felt
so often, _expressed_ as no one ever expressed them before. I am
overwhelmed every time I read it. Mr ---- and the children have quite
laughed at "Mamma's enthusiasm" over a book of poems, as I am considered
very prosaic. I made C. read two or three of them and he _surrenders_.
N. too, who is full of appreciation of poetry as well as of the _best
things_, is equally delighted. I carried the volume to a sick friend and
read to her out of it. I wish you could have seen how she was comforted!
I do not know Mrs. Prentiss, but if you ever get a chance, I would like
you to tell her what she has done for me.

A highly cultivated Swiss lady wrote from Geneva:

What a precious, precious book! and what mercy in God to enable us to
understand, and say Amen from the heart to every line! It was He who
caused you to send me a book I so much needed--and I thank Him as much
as you.

* * * * *

IV.

Incidents of the Year 1874. Prayer. Starts a Bible-Reading in Dorset.
Begins to take Lessons in Painting. A Letter from her Teacher.
Publication of _Urbane and his Friends_. Design of the Work. Her views
of the Christian Life. The Mystics. The Indwelling Christ. An Allegory.

During the winter and early spring of 1874 Mrs. Prentiss found much
delight in attending a weekly Bible-reading, held by Miss Susan Warner.
She was deeply impressed with the advantages of such a mode of studying
the Word of God, and in the course of the summer was led to start a
similar exercise in Dorset. Her letters will show how much satisfaction
it gave her during all the rest of her life.

Another incident, that left its mark upon this year, was the sudden
and dangerous illness of her husband. His life was barely saved by an
immediate surgical operation. He convalesced very slowly and it was many
months before she recovered from the shock.

_To a Christian Friend, Jan. 25, 1874._

I do not perfectly understand what you say about prayer, but it reminds
me of Mrs.----'s expressing surprise at my praying. She said she did
not, because Christ was all round her. But it is no less a fact that
Christ Himself spent hours in prayer, using language when He did so.
That does not prove, how