The Argosy — page 288: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Mrs. Henry Wood. 267 It was all lived in the quietest, calmest, most gentle manner. I have said that she never preached to others. Religion was never mentioned by her. It was far too sacred a thing to be made a topic of conversation. On rare occasions, when it became her absolute duty to speak, her words were few, but impressive with the rare power of earnestness and conviction. She never wearied even her children with lengthened sittings and difficult tasks: but she never omitted to have them with her morning after morning; and if the beautiful face and voice, and the earnest tone and manner, failed in their mission, it must be that there could be no power in any earthly influence. It seems to me right to insist upon this, the highest and best of all her gifts, because it has been too often the case that where great powers of the imagination have existed, the higher spiritual gifts have been absent from their possessors. It was also the unobtrusiveness of my mother’s spiritual life that gave itso much power. She persuaded and conquered by the force of example alone. She was followed, yet she never commanded or dictated. Her unswerving faith never failed her to the last. It was not likely to do so. She bore many weeks of great suffering without a murmur, never losing her serenity, her brightness ; that calm, trusting glance, which ever spoke of a Peace not of this world ; andshe saw the last dread hour approaching with a heroism that cannot be told, a full, firm faith and reliance upon Him in whom she had trusted. Whilst those about her, and near and dear to her, had sometimes to hasten from the room to conceal the emotion it was not always possible to control, her eye remained undimmed, her calmness never forsook her. X. To go back for a moment to the earlier days of her married life. I have said that the change from a cathedral city to a Continental town was a greatone. Many old influences dear to her disappeared for ever. Above all, the companionship of her father, his culti- vated mind and constant influence. They had been everything to each other. The Z7mes, in reviewing ‘‘ East Lynne,” said they had never yet met with any female author possessing her exceptional power for depicting mez, especially zob/e men; and there is no doubt the great model she frequently set before her was the father with whom her most impressionable years had been passed. One other man had great influence upon her life: Dr. Murray, who was then Dean of Worcester and at the same time Bishop of Rochester. He was perhaps the handsomest and most dignified man who ever wore bishop’s robes, and he was dignified and influential in all his domestic relations. From all this she was transferred to France, with its blue skies and balmy atmosphere. But the climate did not always suit her. COMiICoOoKS.c©