Page:Poems Rice.djvu/20

 Mrs. Rice possessed more than the usual personal attractions which fall to the lot of her sex. If personal beauty is to woman one of the greatest of the gifts which come from the great and good God, Mrs. Rice had certainly reason to be grateful for the portion allotted to herself. She possessed an intellect keen, quick, and appreciative, a disposition sweet and genial, in combination with a controlling will, and always in health, and sometimes in illness, a never ceasing flow of spirits, which seemed to well up and sparkle as from a fountain of perpetual joy. Few, even of her own sex, ever possessed more power to create an atmosphere of cheerfulness and happiness wherever she moved. She bound her friends to her by cords which nothing but death could sever. When she had once deliberately formed a friendship it was for life, but in the selection of her friends she adopted the advice of Polonius in Shakespeare, of whom she was a constant student:—

Her natural tendencies were always to a "fit audience find, though few," rather than to mingle with the crowd.

Marrying as she did in very early life, to a great extent Mrs. Rice was a self-taught woman. In a quiet and unobtrusive manner she devoted much of her time to literary cultivation, but it was all done without the least affectation or parade. She occasionally wrote poetry, some of which would pass under the head of what is called Vers de Société, but occasionally, in moments of great distress or sorrow, she would strike a deeper chord, which would vibrate to some of the highest and most sacred feelings of the human soul. Without intending to institute any comparison between any of her poetry and that of Moore or Byron, still, in one respect there is a resemblance, for in the opinion of the writer their best poetry is their "Sacred Melodies," as her best efforts were those which touched upon the soul and the life to come. Some of her poetry has been set to music by a German gentleman of cultivation and taste. One piece is called the "Lake of Melrose," on the beautiful borders of which she once resided, but where she always thought she contracted a disease which haunted her till her death.