Page:Sketches of representative women of New England.djvu/30

Rh compression as well as of sweetness. "The Gentle Ghost of Joy" he thought "a wonderful voluntary in the best style of Chopin." In a line of one of the sonnets, "Yet done with striving and foreclosed of care," he finds something as good as anything of Drayton's. He pronounced the two sonnets called "Great Love" worthy of a "place among Dante's and Petrarch's sonnets," and of the sonnet, "Were but my Spirit loosed upon the Air," he wrote, "It is one of the greatest and finest sonnets in the English language."

I think every one who knows and loves poetry in its highest form and expression will agree with all this, and will feel that the critic spoke of very great verse. Many other critics have been to the full as appreciative, and have felt, as I do, the constant delight of splendid phrase and Shakespearian vigor and utterance in Louise Chandler Moulton's sonnets, and the atmosphere of warmth and beauty that bathes the thought and fancy of each page.

But in spite of the largeness and high quality of her work it is quite as much the woman as the poet who is to be loved and admired. Large-hearted and large-souled, of a religious spirit unfettered by dogma, most tender, most true, most compassionate, genial, ingenuous, of an absolute integrity and an absolute unworldliness, she has the warm affection of all who are fortunate enough to know her at all closely. Men and women, young and old, come to her for the pleasure of the passing hour, for advice, for sympathy in joy or trouble. From all over the country people write to her, confiding their perplexities and sorrows, craving intellectual or spiritual comfort, and always receiving it. Her words of cheer are given from the heart, and she has the satisfaction of knowing the support and strength some of her written words have been to those like the young girl who, confined to her bed for three years and too weak to listen to prayers, could be helped by murmuring to herself:—

Mrs. Moulton's home in Boston is full of interesting souvenirs, autographs, signed pictures, and sculptures given Ijy the artists. At every turn there is association with famous or cherished names, and here her guests find their welcome generous and delightful, her manner gracious, her directness reassuring, her conversation full of sparkle, and her presence full of charm. In her youth of a remarkable beauty, a wild-rose bloom, biack-lashed and black- browed hazel eyes, bright hair, fine features, and the oval lines of the antique in the outline of cheek and chin, much of that charm of her youth she still retains, the same soft yet fearless glance, the same heart-warming smile, the same grace of manner, always the same grace of nature, the same confident assurance of the goodness of every one in the world, loving God in humanity, and spending herself for others. Harriet Prescott Spofford. RS. LILLIAN M. N. STEVENS.—"As sweet and wholesome as her own piny wood" was Frances E. Willard's epigrammatic description of the woman—above named—who succeeds her as leader of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union hosts. Miss Willard and Mrs. Stevens first met in 1875 at Old Orchard, Me., and the friendship there begun ripened into the deepest affection as the years passed.

Mrs. Stevens was born in Maine, and her home has always been within the borders of that State. Her parents were Nathaniel and Nancy Fowler (Parsons) Ames. Her first public work was in the school-room as teacher, when she was Miss Ames. At the age of twenty-one she married Mr. M. Stevens, of Stroudwater, a charming suburb of Portland. Her husband is in full accord with her, and is one of the most genial of hosts to the multitude of her co-workers who are entertained in their hospitable home. Their only child, Mrs. Gertrude Stevens Leavitt, is an ardent white ribboner and one of the State super intenilents in the Maine W. C. T. U.

Mrs. Stevens possesses keen business ability and indomitable will power. She is a woman of culture, gentle in manner, and the embodiment of kindness.