Page:Over the river, and other poems.djvu/12

6 plete with sense and sensibility. There is not a silly or soft line in them all; they are the outpourings of a strong mind and passionate heart, all under the control of high moral and religious principle.

It was a question whether the poems should be arranged in any particular order, or thrown into a mass without any plan of combination. If the date of each could have been determined, probably they would have been placed in chronological order, and thus left to exhibit the growth and the tone of the writer's mind in successive years. But this was impossible. It was then concluded to make an effort at assortment, and arrange the poems under several heads. The result is shown in the following pages. It was soon found to be impossible to make a perfect classification, as several pieces under the divisions of "Religious," "Love and Friendship," "Elegiac Poems," and perhaps some others, are interchangeable. Still, it is believed that the greater number are in their appropriate sections.

One trait of Mrs. Wakefield's mind will attract the attention of every intelligent reader. It was her power of entering into the spirit and the surroundings of her imaginary characters. This is evinced in numerous cases; but the power of putting herself in another's place is seen in "The Hour before Execution," in "The Magdalen," in "The Midnight Bivouac," and many others,