ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING.
BT BDWABD T. HINCKS.
Thbbb has probably lived within the past oentury no wo- man whose genius, character, and position are more fall of interest than Mrs. Browning's. She was not only far above all the female poets of her age, but ranked with the first poets. She was not only a great poet, but a greater woman. She loved and honored art, but she loved and honored hu- manity more* Borti and reared in England, her best affec- tions were given to Italy, and her warmest friends and most enthusiastic admirers are found in America. And when to her rare personal endowments is added the fact that she was the wife of a still greater poet than herself, what is needed to make her the most remarkable woman of this, perhaps of any, age? And, as there is no woman in whose life and character we may naturally take a greater interest, so there is none whom we have better facilities of knowing. Of the ordinary ma- terials out of which biographies are made, her life indeed furnishes few. Its external incidents were not many nor marked. The details of her family life have been very prop- erly kept from the public. The publication of her letters has been deferred until after her husband's death. But what Mrs. Browning thought, felt, and was, is revealed with almost unexampled clearness in her writings. With all her genius she possessed in full measure the artlessness of her sex. Her
