also
much enjoyed many of the later novelists, especially Charles Dickens and
George Eliot.

In poetry her taste was in some respects the taste of an earlier
generation; she could not join, for instance, in the depreciation of Byron,
nor could she sympathize with the unbounded admiration for Keats which she
met with among the young. Milton, Cowper, Burns, Byron, and Longfellow were
among those oftenest read, but Shakespeare always remained supreme, and as
the years went by her wonder and admiration seemed only to grow stronger
and deeper with every fresh reading of his greatest plays; and the
intervals without some Shakespeare reading, either aloud or to herself,
were short and rare. She had not an intimate knowledge of Shelley, but in
the later years of her life she became deeply impressed by the beauty and
music of his poetry, which she liked best to hear read aloud.

Tennyson she loved, and latterly also Browning, with protests against his
obscurity and his occasionally most unmusical English. The inspiration of
his brave and optimistic philosophy she felt strongly. She was extremely
fond of reading Dante, and she was better acquainted with German and
Italian poetry than most cultivated women. But though she read much and
often in the works of famous writers, this did not prevent her keeping
abreast with the literature of the day. She was strongly attracted by
speculative books, not too technical, and by the works of theologians whose
views were broad and tolerant of doubt. In 1847 she mentions reading some
of Dr. Channing's writings "with the greatest delight"; and some years
afterwards she wrote: "Began 'Life of Channing'; interesting in the highest
degree--an echo of all those high and noble thoughts of which this earth is
not yet worthy, but which I firmly believe will one day reign on it
supreme." In later years she was deeply impressed by the writings of Dr.
Martineau, and read many of his books. But she was not interested in
philosophical inquiry for its own sake; it was the importance of the moral
and religious issues at stake in such discussions that attracted her.
History and biography it was natural she should read eagerly, and it was
characteristic of her to praise and condemn actions long past with an
intensity such as is usually excited by contemporary events. Until a few
years before her death she rose early to secure a space of time for reading
and meditation before the duties of the day began. Unless