DINAH MARIA MULOCK-CRAIK.
"A little while, and then we too shall soar
Like white-winged sea-birds into the infinite Deep."
WE knew her not, save as for us she wrought
Models of excellence, whereby to raise
Life's liliputian standards of dispraise
Skyward, above tradition. In her thought
Men moved as godlike souls and taught
By every common deed the regal ways
Of gentle-manhood. Never does one gaze
Entranced into these living souls for naught.
So, though we knew her not, she was our friend;
And as our friend her death we do deplore,—
Earth levelled insomuch it claims no more
Her busy hand and brain and laurelled brow;
Yet, as our friend, the heights seem nearer now
To which such reverent spirits do ascend.
OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP.
The first thing to be said about the feminine nom de plume, usually, is that it is not feminine. Why is it that the woman writer, when she takes a pen in her hand to address the public, so commonly wishes it to be forgotten that she is a woman? She does not seem to care for this deceit or illusion when she addresses the public orally from a platform. No woman that I ever heard of ever assumed a masculine garb for the sole purpose of being an orator. Why should she affect, then, the habit of the man when she steps forth as a writer?
As an orator or public speaker she assumes, in fact, a position which no grace of manner, or softness of voice, or beauty of fare, or bewitching mystery of dress can quite demasculinize (if I may coin a word for this occasion). For the performance, however well it is done, has that element of commanding power and psychological sway of a multitude by direct physical influence that no amount of habit or familiarity with it can make much different from masculine effort. The function cannot seem otherwise than a man's function. The act of writing, on the contrary, is one of very slight assumption. It does not bring your person into view. You jostle among no rough crowds as a writer, but simply sit in a seclusion as complete as that which hedges in the women of the Orient. It is a fact that some of the veiled women of Persia today are writers of literary productions, and this exercise violates no law of their
