Page:The works of Anna Laetitia Barbauld volume 1.djvu/65

 long out of print and often inquired for in vain;—well knowing that a day must come when the sting of Envy would be blunted, and her memory would have its fame.

No incident worthy of mention henceforth occurred to break the uniformity of her existence. She gave up all distant journeys; and confined at home to a narrow circle of connexions and acquaintance, she suffered life to slide away, as it were, at its own pace,

An asthmatic complaint, which was slowly undermining her excellent constitution, more and more indisposed her for any considerable exertion either of mind or body: but the arrival of a visitor had always the power to rouse her from a state of languor. Her powers of conversation suffered little declension to the last, al-