Introduction HE republication of "The of their author. Two years ago, from a brief correspondence in Notes and Queries, it might have seemed as if she had been entirely forgotten; but since her books have attained a new popularity some interesting accounts of her retired life have reached me through the kindness of friends. She is remembered at Reigate as a tall, thin lady with black hair, an aquiline nose, and a bright colour. She lived very quietly, and was considered "old-fashioned" by the few who knew her intimately. She is described as at times bitter in her satire; and in her later years, when she was obliged to spend much time on her couch from ill-health, "rather hard" in voice. Her literary activity, it is clear, must have been very great, and she was a wide reader in all directions; but her powers, it would seem, remained for a long time unnoticed; and those who knew her reserved character and somewhat stiff manner expressed astonishment when they discovered that it was she who had written the charming book of which every one was talking, “The Maiden and Married Life of Mary Powell," which has always been the most popular of her works. In opinion she was a stout English Churchwoman, of the type, perhaps, which has been dubbed "high and dry," constant in attendance at daily services, correct, restrained, sincere. Of her genuine homeliness there can be no more doubt than of her real piety. One who knew her speaks of her as "a very gentle, quiet lady," says that a book of quaint cookery recipes in her writing, which she gave to a friend, is still in existence, and tells that she once said "she liked darning stockings, as when so employed she could think out her books." She was very kind to young literary aspirants, and one to whom she was much attached writes: "Her loss to me as a dear friend, as well as a kind, judicious, and actively helpful literary adviser, was very great. These few memories are helpful in fixing an impression of one whom we should be glad that lovers of genre-painting in literature should not forget. The two stories which are now combined in this volume possess all her characteristic merits. It was a happy inspiration that set Miss Manning's imagination to work upon the life of the great Puritan poet. There is a contrast which no student can fail to have observed between the charm of his character, in its purity, gentleness, and eager love of truth, and the circum stances of his relations to those most near to him in kindred. It is not difficult to see that, apart from the unhappy fate which seems often to pursue men of genius in their married life, there were reasons for his sorrows in the bitterness of party feeling which accompanied the strength of his convictions. Married life, we are told, must be always something of a compromise, and of compromise Milton was utterly abhorrent. The contrasts of his character and his life are reflected in his work. Who could believe that the same hand wrote "Il Penseroso" and "Eikonoklastes"? With all the softness of face and sweetness of imagination there is a certain hardness, even harshness, that will not be denied utterance, and the middle period of his life is that in which this harshness finds its chief expression. His personality, indeed, lacks a perfect harmony, and it is this, though it be temerarious to assert it, which makes him fail to reach the perfection of a religious poet. Magnificence in conception, profundity in thought, imagi nation, reverence, truth, he has all these, and yet if I may repeat with emphasis a statement which has been severely criticised he has not that note of absolute sincerity and self-abandonment which makes Christina Rossetti supreme in spiritual verse. sides of life too keenly: with all his cloistered sympathies, he dwelt too much in the world, and when political and ecclesiastical warfare had soured his spirit, he never recovered the exquisite harmony of his earlier days. Landor has said very truly that in "Paradise Regained" he seems to be subject to strange hallucinations of the ear; he who before had greatly excelled all poets of all ages in the science and display of harmony." I will complete the passage, for it may serve to correct my own less enthusiastic judgment. "And if in his last poem we exhibit his deficiencies, surely we never shall be accused of disrespect or irreverence to this immortal man. It may be doubted whether the Creator ever created He felt, perhaps, the two ' b |