wholly different, and that no straining of the eyes avails if the mind is occupied with another image.”
A more probable explanation of these singular experiences may perhaps be found in the intense nature of the child, who was "in a passion of delight” at the thought of leaking upon the sea, and whose baby-heart swelled to bursting with disappointment and mortification at her failure to see the rare phenomena of nature. The too eager desire defeated its own object, and she did not see because she strained her vision by her too intense effort and anxiety; an experience not uncommon to us “children of a larger growth.”
It was almost a necessity of such a nature that it should find expression through the pen at a very early age, but for some years this mode of expression was followed only as an amusement and recreation. It was not until after her twentieth year that she thought of turning her talent at composition to account. About that time her
