Page:The works of Anna Laetitia Barbauld volume 1.djvu/26

 airy imagination which was never conversant with terror, and rarely with pity, has been repeatedly ascribed to Mrs. Barbauld, even in print.

Having thus laid the foundation of a lasting reputation in literature. Miss Aikin might have been expected to proceed with vigour in rearing the superstructure; and the world awaited with impatience the result of her further efforts. But an event, the most important of her life, was about to subject her to new influence, new duties, to alter her station, her course of life, and to modify even the bent of her mind. This event was her marriage, which took place in May 1774.

The Rev. Rochemont Barbauld, whom she honoured with her hand, was descend ed from a family of French protestants. During the persecutions of Louis XIV., his grandfather, then a boy, was carried