c mind, bursting on me with all their original wildness and
gay exuberance, were again hailed as sweet realities. I forgot,
with equal facility, that I ever felt sorrow or knew care in the
country; while a transient rainbow stole athwart the cloudy sky of
despondency. The picturesque forms of several favorite trees, and
the porches of rude cottages, with their smiling hedges, were
recognized with the gladsome playfulness of childish vivacity. I
could have kissed the chickens that pecked on the common; and
longed to pat the cows, and frolic with the dogs that sported on
it. I gazed with delight on the wind-mill, and thought it lucky
that it should be in motion at the moment I passed by: and entering
the dear green lane which led directly to the village, the sound of
the well-known rookery gave that sentimental tinge to the varying
sensations of my active soul, which only served to heighten the
lustre of the luxuriant scenery. But spying, as I advanced, the
spire peeping over the withered tops of the aged elms that composed
the rookery, my thoughts flew immediately to the church-yard; and
tears of affection, such was the effect of my imagination, bedewed
my mother's grave! Sorrow gave place to devotional feelings. I
wandered through the church in fancy as I used sometimes to do on a
Saturday evening. I recollected with what fervor I addressed the
God of my youth; and once more with rapturous love looked above my
sorrows to the Father of nature. I pause, feeling forcibly all the
emotions I am describing; and (reminded, as I register my sorrows,
of the sublime calm I have felt when, in some tremendous solitude,
my soul rested on itself, and seemed to fill the universe) I
insensibly breathe softly, hushing every wayward emotion, as if
fearing to sully with a sigh a contentment so ecstatic."

"Maria" seemed to many of its readers an unanswerable proof of the charge
of immorality brought against its authoress. Mrs. West, in her "Letters
to a Young Man," pointed to it as evidence of Mary's unfitness for the
world beyond the grave. The "Biographical Dictionary" undoubtedly
referred to it when it declared that much of the four volumes of Mary's
posthumous writings "had better been suppressed, as ill calculated to
excite sympathy for one who seems to have rioted in sentiments alike
repugnant to reli