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Marking books strictly for- bidden. per Readers are asked to report all cases of books marked or muti- lated. Cornell University Library S7R49 be 186 leon. vith ival of Nai | “iii 3 1924 022 779 775 om Madame de Staél The ‘Rival 68 ‘Napoleon By Helen ‘Hinsdale. Rich MADAME pr STAEL MADAME bz STAEL THE RIVAL OF NAPOLEON Helen Hinsdale Rich pitt fa o~ @ CHICAGO PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, UNDER THE DIRECTION OF STONE & KIMBALL MDCCCXCV » Hee fey A: 20374 avignnre 1895, BY HELEN HINSDALE RICKS: “ly MADAME pe STAEL. In the consideration of this illustrious character, so many images crowd the memory, emotions so conflicting min- gle with our recollections, that the stately figures of French romance seem actually to step down from their ped- estals to startle, enchant or repulse. Napoleon—Madame de Staél ; wonder- ful epoch! There are differing opin- ions concerning the career of this great woman, but no diversity of judgment as to her writings. I beg your indulgence if I seem too enthusiastic, but the reverent study of her life work must inspire in every woman profound admi- ration, sympathy. Deficient in great personal beauty, living among political factions, the hor- rors of civil war, proscribed, banished, yet for thirty-three years she was the cen- tral figure of the highest cultivation of the eighteenth century. Ten years of age I 2 MADAME DE STAEL. when this republic was born, she im- bibed its lessons of human freedom. Yes, and when our Prometheus, Frank- lin, had brought fire from heaven for the sons of men, and carried the sacred spark of liberty to France, her young soul took fire and the holy flame went never out of her heart—her life. To know that at fifteen years, her con- versation charmed the most brilliant minds of that age of momentous events, that phenomenal era, is very proud, precious knowledge to her sisters of this. “Her writings,” said Lord Byron, “ will certainly descend to the latest posterity.” “Her Germany is,” said Sir John McIntosh, “the most elaborate and masculine production of the faculties of woman.” Allison held her the first of female, and second to few male authors. Jeffry, also Macaulay declared that she was by far the greatest woman of her time. Schlegel exclaimed: ‘She was a woman, great and magnanimous, even in the deepest recesses of her soul. Her filial adoration, culminating in elegic pathos, the almost lyrical enthu- siasm of her introduction to the manu- scripts of M. Necker, is as unique in lit- MADAME DE STAEL. 3 erature as the maternal passion which is immortalized in Madame Sevigné’s let- ters to her daughter.” In her filial affections, maternal ten- derness, the warmth, the fearless, unfal- tering constancy of her friendships, her love for other distinguished (and far more beautiful) women, we discover a rare combination of gracious, endearing qualities. The motto of Michael Angelo was hers: “Believe in yourself and be true. Be something of worth.” If, as her enemies claimed, her regard for her own gifts was supreme, it bore good fruit. To believe in others is not difficult, but to trust in one’s own indi- vidual strength, to revere the divinity within us, to honor our own honest worth and work, not with blind unrea- soning egotism, but with that discrimi- nating severity of criticism we hasten to bestow upon others, bespeak a fine strain of subtle force, a spontaneity of talents that anticipate success. In the outset, then, let us concede to this great woman (as to great men) the right to self-respect, self-reliance. Hers was no peasant birth; no ob- scure, ignominious origin. She had the 4 MADAME DE STAEL. heroic passion of poetry, eloquence, love of country. These immortal fires elimi- nated the small virtues of self-distrust and subserviency. ‘ Born to the pur- ple” of learning, genius, her air,. her smile, her regal presence betokened the royal spirit, the commission of the King of Kings. As the queenly rose bears no similitude to the modest daisy, she, the sole child of M. Necker, had no vocation for the life of the meek and blushing Doris. Juno was never cup- bearer, even to the gods. When we re- call the period of her birth, descendant of free-born Switzers; a family noted for elevation of character; a scholarly father, brain of the court of Louis XVL, first in council; a mother so beautiful, saintly and charming, that from having been the only love of the astute and cynical Gibbon, in her girlhood, she re- tained his esteem and knightly homage throughout his life, we trace the unmis- takable evidences of inherited talents, character. When we visit her home, as the artist, poets and historians have pictured it for us, we find unity of pur- pose, feeling, taste and principle, where souls were harmoniously keyed to lofty MADAME DE STAEL. 5 aims, and earnest lives were rounded out to noble uses; a mental atmosphere, an environment most favorable to a symmetrical character; the affectional, spiritual side sustained and perfected. Thus blest, we do not so much marvel at the glorious results, as, being women of this golden age, we exult in this con- summate flower of all the ages. Monsieur Necker was born in Geneva. His father was professor of civil law, and he gave his aspiring son a superior edu- cation, until, while still young, he became clerk in a great Parisian bank- ing house. Rapidly rising from desk to chief, with the financial ability of the gold kings of to-day (without their miser greed), he was, at the time of the birth of his daughter, minister of finance, and all-powerful with the king and people. He was a Gibraltar of in- tegrity in financial ability; as humaneas unapproachable, and still with a states- man’s foresight he planned, toiled, for the rights of the citizen; with true beneficence helped the poor laborer to prudent management, to means. He was progressive, just, moderate. Anna Maria Louisa Necker was born 6 MADAME DE STAEL. in Paris in 1766. She died in that city, where Holmes says “good Americans go when they die,” in 1817. She was not, according to recognized standards, beautiful; yet her voice was never for- gotten—sweet, flexible, entrancing; eyes of haunting power and womanly tender- ness-—~ magnetically expressive; her hands, models of perfect loveliness ; her arms and neck rounded to queenly grace; with hair soft, shiny, abundant, brown as the heron’s wing, “gold in the sunshine.” She was a vigorous, precocious child. No means were spared to develop the fine physique, the brain of this favorite of the gods. These married lovers (her parents) brought tothe blissful duty of her rearing exceptional acquirements; like the educators of Marcus Aurelius—the consecration of the highest motives of philanthropy and justice. Madame de Staél always retained for both parents the fondest affection—for her father that worshipful regard often observable between father and daughter whose en- tire congeniality of taste and ambition make broad fields of operation, leader- ‘ship, indispensable. A hero-worshiper, MADAME DE STAEL. 7 she said of him: “His mind had such vivacity and penetration that one was excited to think by the coveted pleasure of talking to him.” “TI listened to others to repeat to him. I read and observed to report to him.” Again, when he was removed from her by death, she said: “If I were not con- vinced of a future life I should go mad with the idea that one so gentle, so per- fect, had left this world forever. “He was a man who, in no circum- stance of his life, preferred the most important of his interests to the least of his duties. “When my father left me, I, for the first time, was forced to rely upon my- self.” With the devotion of such parents, her every hour was conscripted into the service of virtue, learning. To this ab- sorbing mentality were given the stored splendors of music, art—antique and oriental — philosophy, sacred research and intimate association with the most profound scholars and statesmen of that remarkable age. The blazing jewels of the east were not so precious to her as the resplendent 8 MADAME DE STAEL. treasures of its sciences, its religions. She had the inspiration of classic lore. For her Aurelius meditated, discoursed ; Epictetus propounded his axioms; Plato reasoned; Homer sang, and Socrates ex- ulted in the immortal life. Lofty idealism kept undimmed the memory of her lovely lady mother, the doting, adoring father, to her last hours on earth. They both encouraged this prodigy to the discussion of literary, political, philosophical and theological themes. Indeed, at the age of twelve, she read, wrote and performed tragedy with young people of twenty-five. Her mother, puritanic, yet with the fresh, sweet soul of a happy wife and mother, directed her studies, polished her manners, the foundation of these being entire sincerity, naturalness. She taught the child to consult and to repro- duce, with tongue and pen, the finest models of strength and elegance. In that era, as in this, the courage to think gave birth to startling discoveries. Brave, questioning eyes were peering through the skeleton gates of the mould- ering horrors of superstition, intoler- ance and tyranny. Luther had charged MADAME DE STAEL. 9 down upon St. Peter’s. Servetus had defied Calvin and his blood dyed the crystal waters of Lake Geneva. It be- gan to be claimed that men had rights, priests, kings were bound to respect. The premonitory upheavals of the old systems, uprooting abominations, were felt by prophetic souls. These com- ing changes inflamed the spirit of this ardent woman; kindled her enthu- siasm and sharpened her perceptions. Mlle. Necker became the star of the literary society of the polite capital. She eagerly embraced American ideas of equality and fraternity. This serious devotee of humanity, from the study of the life, the sublime teachings of Jesus, Socrates, Buddha, came to adore, love mercy, purity; to venerate the divine in the human; to worship God as the one perfection, the father, mother, of all be- ings. The constant comradeship of the great minds of her time enriched, stim- ulated her fancy and fed her devotion to liberal sentiment. The idle, frivolous women who, like golden butterflies, flut- tered gaily through the gardens of pleasure and fashion, paled be‘ore this regnant girl. 10 MADAME DE STAEL. Her marriage (before she had even loved) was one arranged by her ambi- tious friends and relatives. The young Count de Staél Holstein, Swedish Am- bassador to Paris, was chosen from the crowd of her suitors, to become the hus- band of this queen among women. Handsome, with great wealth and an- cient family, yet he was her inferior in intellectual endowments, in right prin- ciple. Although there were no active hostilities, the union was not happy— the wren and the nightingale; the jay and the eagle! Their three children were very far from ordinary. The younger son died in battle; the elder survived his’ parents and completed his mother’s works. Her daughter became the Duchess de Broglie, justly celebrated for mental charms, personal loveliness, virtues and accomplishments. Madame de Stael spared no effort or expense in the education of her idolized children. She secured and retained the tutorship and constant attendance of the pure- minded, renowned scholar, Schlegel (the first in Europe), for her sons and daughter. It was a revelation of womanly gen- MADAME DE STAEL. II erosity and nobility, the poetic, delight- ful and sisterly affection of our heroine for the most beautiful of all women, Madame Recamier. The entire absence of envy, the mutual tenderness of these grand women, quite wins our hearts, and disproves the ill-natured proverb, that “Women never fall in love with each other, or if they do, they soon fall out.” Anon, the faithful, the invaluable serviees, M. Necker had rendered France for so many years, refusing all compen- sation, were withdrawn. When he be- came the head of the monetary affairs of France he found debt, an empty treasury. M. Necker paid the national debt (largely with personal loans, never refunded in full); restored confidence at home and abroad; created large surplus; and had his just policy been adopted, the obstinate, improvident king might have retained his head. At length the oppressed people, grown desperate, were loudin remonstrance; threatened the no- bility, whose intolerable extortions had reduced France to the verge of famine.. Writhing under the rapacious exactions of king and nobles, seeing their homes 12 MADAME DE STAEL. invaded by vicious courtiers, their chil- dren starving, they appealed to their wise friend, M. Necker, as solicitor with king and council, for justice; for ameli- oration of their miseries. The long submissive subjects had be- come dangerous. MRepulsed at every point, M. Necker resigned. Then the Bastile was stormed. He was recalled and a transitory peace ensued. But was there ever a Bourbon ‘who could comprehend reform? Vainly the Min- ister of Finance urged retrenchment, conciliation. The taunting display of regal splendor, the lavish, disastrous policy of the weak, stubborn monarch, the aggressions of titled profligates neu- tralized M. Necker’s patriotic efforts. After repeated rebuffs, resignations, not- withstanding the wild entreaties of the people for him to resume the duties of his office, a fresh indignity from court and cabinet decided him, and with sor- rowful, prophetic forebodings he left France forever. Then the long re- pressed fury of the populace found vent. The misguided, inefficient sovereign, the royal family went down before the sanguinary mob. The hour had struck. MADAME DE STAEL. 13 The law of retribution, human or divine, is inexorable. Paris, the favored abode of art, science, pleasure, became the nucleus of unnumbered evils, ghastly with the rev- elry of murder; the sepulchre of her fairest daughters, her gallant and lordly sons. M. Necker, a broken-hearted ex- ile, returned to his birthplace, Coppet, his loyal spirit weighed down in humil- iation, at the ingratitude, the indignities he had received, the woes of his adopted country, the France of his daughter, his labors, ambitions and his glory! Amidst the scenes of his youth, the Geneva of the martyrs and poets, this great financial genius pondered upon the vicissitudes of human life, wrote, mourned and died. Carlyle (the literary dyspeptic) charged M. Necker with weakness. He also said of Napoleon: “This ruler of the French, dictating terms to nearly all Europe, towers into a giant; yet these are only the stilts on which a charlatan is seen standing; the stature of the man is not altered thereby.” And yet Fieffe, the author of ‘“ Mod- ern Europe,” though also an English- 14 MADAME DE STAEL. man, declares that “the rights of man would have been recognized, had Napo- leon conquered at Waterloo. Republi- canism and not despotism would have been triumphant.” Napoleon was a better husband (even divorced) than the ghoul of poor little Jane Carlyle. Car- lyle also deified Cromwell, the canting, impious hypocrite, who besought God on his knees to save the life and soul of King Charles, when his head rolled from the block at his own command. The worshiper of despots could not be just to Monsieur Necker, who was so depraved as to love and serve France, and he still sits scolding (in books) in the shadow of the house of Bourbon. How sublime the heroism, the phil- anthropy of Madame de Staél in this awfui culmination of wrongs and sor- rows! Left alone with her little ones in the city of despair, “ Paris the Red,” smarting under the wounds, Louis and his nobles had inflicted upon her adored father, she yet remained to face the tempest, the terrors of the Revolution of ’93, that she might mitigate them; that, at the risk of her life, she might save the proscribed, feed the famishing, MADAME DE STAEL. 15 even toil and plot to rescue the ungrate- ful king, the fair, frivolous queen; plead- ing upon her knees with tears and sobs, with fervid eloquence, for mercy for her friends, for the poorest poor—even for her foes; pouring out gold like worth- less stuff, for woeful humanity ; urging moderate measures, mitigating circum- stances, the honor of France, the claims of infancy and maternity, the religion of her mother, the pity of God. At last, when the lives of her babes were imperiled and the gory hand of the tuthless detective clutched her white shoulders, she snatched her trembling brood to her great loving heart and fled from her lost Paradise; fled with the flaming sword of fire and blood, and the bay of its sleuth-hounds, behind her; fled in anguish from the vile miscreants who had fed upon her pitying father’s munificence and her own too lavish bounty. Ah! what unquenchable flames a little fire of communism kindleth! This angel of mercy was in exile; yet, like some wondrous tropical plant, ap- propriating only the life-giving from the soil, the atmosphere of banishment ; always thinking deeply, writing, extract- 16 MADAME DE STAEL. ing wisdom from misfortune; the stay, the supreme blessing of her parents; the life of the little colony of French emi- grants who sought safety across the- channel; the star of the literary world of London; winning fresh laurels in every capital she visited, she concen- trated all the rays of cosmopolitan fame upon her transcendent personality. She received the homage of Sir James McIn- tosh, Erskine, Burke, Byron, Schiller, Goethe, Shelley, kings, colleges, the friends of freedom everywhere. In France Louis de Marbonne, type of the high-born gentleman, clear brained, pure, from the polished, fascinating ex- terior to the white soul within; Talley- rand, adroit diplomat, king of aphorism and logic, were her allies and admirers through life. With the restoration of peace and order, she returned to the French cap- ital, and,inthe palmy days of the Repub- lic, she again found happiness with her children and friends. Much has been said of her quarrel with the Emperor, then First Consul. Whyshould it be con- sidered one of the womanly attributes to be destitute of discernment; to war MADAME DE STAEL. 17 with one’s intuitive perceptions, just convictions, of the real character of those we meet? Were not the condi- tions always imposed upon woman suf- ficiently arbitrary and repressive? And if, at rare intervals, a woman is en- dowed with that clear insight into the minds of others, the prescience some- times supposed to be monopolized by man, why hasten to designate such a woman as “masculine?” Madame De Staél had read a thous- and-fold more history than the giant of Corsica had ever made. She was a de- vout lover of human liberty. Acquaint- ance with the emancipators of the race had taught her poetic justice to indi- vidual merit and _ self-sacrifice. The great captains, the evangels of earth, were gods to her superb imagination. She trembled for the blood-bought lib- erties of her country. She saw quite through the smiles, the aims of men, and her innate sense of danger warned her that in the massive brow, firm, clear-cut lips, the mysterious magnetic smile, the eyes irresistible in their wonderful charm, in the soul of the hero of the pyramids slumbered the terrible forces 18 MADAME DE STAEL. that would crush the republic and domi- nate Europe. Common opinion has it that all this would have been, but for the blunder of an aristocrat at Waterloo. Gambetti used to note the fact that Madame Rémusat failed to understand the emperor until the murder of his great state prisoner, but Madame de Staél read him at a glance. Napoleon instantly recognized the temper of the steel flashing in the eyes before him, and the white flame of undying antagonism leaped from his heart to his face; for “like Alexander he would reign and he would reign.alone.” This electric gleam was reflected in the penetrating gaze of the one woman whose heart he could not touch, and whose will he could not conquer. Mutual repulsion! The bit- ing scorn of his first sentence elicited the defiant retort of a practiced wit, skilled as his was wo/, to parry and thrust in the courtly tilt of refined, yet murderous irony. ‘Her shaft would find her victim if seated on a rainbow,” he remarked. War was declared, ag- gressive on his side, defensive on hers. When Bonaparte threw off the sem- blance of democratic government and MADAME DE STAEL, 19 inaugurated that imposing burlesque— imperialism—transforming his marshals and brothers into dukes and kings, find- ing that Madame de Staél indulged ‘in the feminine amusement of deadly sar- casm at his expense; aware that she “still held her state in Rome, as easily asaking;” that Talleyrand and Benja- min Constant (even his brothers), a lit- tle select court of illustrious personages, thronged her receptions, to enjoy her enchanting conversation; and that her discourses upon “free government” did not reflect favorably upon his own, (although banished forty leagues from Paris, she was still too near), he sen- tenced her to perpetual exile from France; confiscated her “Germany,” to which she had given all her personal observations of travel and six.years of unremitting toil. After it had passed the censorship he had established, he ordered her ten thousand copies burned, even the manuscript. This most inval- uable contribution to literature was, however, saved by the brave ingenuity of her son. Bowed to the earth by the weight, the cruelty of this last sutrage; sick at heart,even her queenly spirit 20 MADAME DE STAEL. shaken, she bade a weeping adieu to her beloved native land, and with her chil- dren took up the grievous burden of her “ten years of exile.” Amid perils, privations and dreary wanderings to reach England, she gath- ered the rich harvest of ideas and facts which her genius has bequeathed to the sacred repositories of learning. Inspir- ation came to her from the incidents, trials and scenes through which she passed—now in the Black Forest, then in Poland, and amid the snows of Rus- sia. Her strictures upon national traits, habits and laws would do honor to the great statesmen of the world. . The alchemy of her genius transmuted the tears of exile into pearls of fadeless beauty. The gentle ministrations of sorrow, purified, ennobled a nature that, possibly, required the chastening hand of calamity to develop its true strength and worth. The rulers, not in alliance with Napoleon, were devoted to her in- terests. Authors, friends of the freedom of speech and of the press, everywhere delighted to do her honor. Her sor- rowful journeyings were triumphal marches and her years of exile the most MADAME DE STAEL. 21 fruitful of her too brief, bright life of fifty-one years. When her old enemy, Napoleon, had the bitter draught of banishment pressed to his own lips at Elba, our heroine re- turned to Paris. Again she resumed the golden threads of her life’s home story. Alas, they were gemmed with the unavailing tears of bitter regret. Again she wrought for liberty, civiliza- tion. Her childhood came back to her in the endearing presence and studies of her children. This home of her fathers was haunted by many glorious memo- ries. Its lofty chambers were still faint with the fragrance of the dead and gone flowers of a past, consecrated to the holiest affections, the most exalted aspir- ations. Her dream was rudely broken by the return of the hero of Austerlitz and she suffered the pangs of terrible ap- prehensions. “Oh!” she would ex- claim, embracing her daughter in agon- ized emotion, “Why should the tyrant. occupy himself with one so insignificant, so powerless? “Has not the Emperor a million of soldiers; ten millions of revenue; all the prisons of Europe at his disposal ; 22 MADAME DE STAEL. kings for his jailers; art his servant; the press his mouth-piece? “And because Madame Recamier Montmorency and my children’s tutor, Schlegel, still cling to me, they too were banished from their country. “They were excellent, grand; they dared to be true; mediocrity always lends itself to the service of events; looks not beyond circumstance; has no strength to withstand the dictum of the oppressor.” She had not long to suffer. Napo- leon had no longer time or wish to per- secute women, and itis related that in the conflicting counsels of “the hun- dred days” he even sent a messenger to ask her aid “in establishing a constitu- tion for France.”” Madame de Stael, like many great men, “was a good hater,” and, with the embittered mem- ories of her “ten years in exile” all upon her, she sent this characteristic reply: “Tell Bonaparte that for twelve years he has done without a constitution for France, and without me, and even now he has no more liking for one than the other.” She lived to see her persecutor, in the ten- MADAME DE STAEL. 23 der mercy of Christian, ‘Merrie Eng- land,” doomed to the refinement of cruelty, of ocean exile. She was permitted to enjoy the ma- turity of her children, to die in the city of her birth, in the noontide of intel- lectual splendor and enduring fame. This rival, in glory, of Aspasia and Ze- nobia, was buried with her family in the grounds at Coppet. Hundreds of pil- grims yearly visit the grave of this in- comparable woman. It is truly said of her writings: They are as powerful as voluminous; as pro- found as elegant; they are classical. They are “ Delphine ;” “Thoughts on Suicide;” “Society and Solitude;” “Corinne, or Italy;” “Consideration of Literature;” ‘“Germany;” “The French Revolution;” “Ten Years in Exile,” and others of less importance. Of her “Corinne, or Italy,” although the principal lover, in the favor of the heroine, was a vacillating, weak creature, no praise can outrun the relative merits, as a novel of that period. It will be read while noble women nobly love zm- agined heroes, and while true men, like Castele Forte, redeem their sex from the 24 MADAME DE STAEL. inconstancy, the imbecility of its Os- walds. When it appeared, learned pro- fessors, authors discussed it in the streets of Berlin, Edinburgh, London, with tears in their honest eyes. Comments of great men, like this of McIntosh, were frequent: “I am slowly reading Cor- inne. What power, what pathos! How she writes of art, music, heroism! She, alone, seems to have ved in the Eternal City.” Her critical works on Germany, and sketches of its literature have done more than all else to introduce German writers into France and England, and thence, to our own country. Hers was a mind that grasped the most difficult problems of political economy ; weighed the systems of gov- ernment; examined intricate questions of theology, with breadth and fairness; analyzed characters with discrimination, although biased by her ardent affec- tions, yet unerring when not personally interested; decided upon philosophical truth or error; fully comprehended, sifted scientific theories; originated im- perishable poems; and her metaphysical MADAME DE STAEL. 25 arguments were not unworthy to be compared with those of Hamilton. Every work of this restless, thoughtful toiler was better than the preceding— perfection her aim, truth her divinity. In her prose, poetry found constant ex- pression. Her poetry was musical as the soft winds of France and Italy, that told her the story of their travels. To her was confided the gentle conspiracy between the violet and the heliotrope, the lily and the forget-me-not; and the secret of the rose’s heart, the song of the nightingale, the monotonous sighing of the fair sea waves, was hers in divine possession. Love breathed upon her soul and illumined all nature with the glory of transcendent beauty and song. Her poems had depth of thought, ten- der, exalted sentiment, and the purest imagination. Her prose, in the musical flow of her periods, the absence of all puerilities, in perspicuity, in graphic, curt definitions, and impressive earnest- ness; in the expression of the ardent love of nature, art, music, and the full- est recognition of the rights of man and woman and of unswerving faith in the 26 MADAME DE STAEL. “eternal goodness,” no woman has ever equalled, and only Mrs. Browning, in poetry, has approached her. In personal grace, bewildering charm of conversation, she hadno equal. Her pure French diction, faultless elocution (artfully artless) thrilled all hearts. She possessed the rare gift of bringing out the best talents of her guests, disseminating the sunshine of her own spirit upon all she met. Her womanly sympathy, daz- zling wit, fascination of voice, face and gesture—but I forbear. This was to have been an essay. May it not be for- given ove woman that she has been be- trayed into eulogy of another ? THE PRINTING OF THIS BOOK WAS DONE AT THE LAKESIDE PRESS, CHICAGO, FOR STONE & KIMBALL, M DCCC XC V. 9 Mrs. HeLten HinspaLe Ricu begs to announce that she will shortly republish A DREAM OF THE ADIRONDACKS AND OTHER POEMS, formerly brought out by G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, and now out of print. _ Lranscript, Boston, Mass.— Real, living poetry, spontaneous and fresh from the heart, that, was written because it would be written. Spectator, London, Eng.—Mrs. Rich’s "Justice in Feadville” is not unworthy of John Hay or Bret arte. ~ Critic, N. Y.— These poems bespeak a woman’s sweet and tender nature. Like a happy bird, she sings of country, love and home. Nation, N. ¥.—The dialect poems of Mrs. Rich are far above the average, comparing favorably with those of Bret Harte and John Hay. Home Journal, N. Y.—I1f this poem had been found in the works of Alexander Smith, or in Festus, it would have been hailed as among the gems of literature. R, H. Stoddard says in ‘“Mailand Express” (New York): Mrs. Rich’s work possesses a distinct lite- yary quality which entitles her to a high place among the poets of our country. Forthcoming. Uniform with this latter volume, Mrs. Rich will also print her second book of verse, entitled, “MURILLO’S SLAVE AND OTHER POEMS,” 16 mo. cloth. $1.25 each. Orders should be addressed to the author, 3613 Lake Avenue, Chicago, Tl USA ;