Revolution "was an especial favourite with her, and came to excellent account when she afterwards wrote the life of Madame Roland. She protested with reason agamst Carlyle's contempt for the innocent enjoyments of life. "I keep to the motto of Mirza Schaffy, 'As the fruits of the field flourish under sunshine and rain, so the deeds of men under joy and sorrow.'" The influence of another illustrious writer of the period was personal as well as merely literary. She frequently met Mr. Swinburne, and heard him read his poems, which she herself was much in the habit of reading aloud in private circles: —
"Swinburne read to us in the evening the first part of 'Tristram and Iseult.' I was very much struck with it; it is certainly one of the finest things he has ever written, and whenever I happen to meet Swinburne I am struck afresh by the wonderful vitality and verve of the man's mind. His conversation has the same bracing effect upon me in one way as sea-winds have in another, and I am conscious of a vibration after it for days and weeks together."
Mr. Swinburne imbued her to a certain extent with his own enthusiasm for Victor Hugo, whose works she perused very conscientiously, but—
"Est modus in rebus, sunt certi denique fines."
And she had to admit that
"It was no laughing matter
To read through L'Homme qui rit"!
The magnificence of "La Légende des Siècles "greatly impressed her, as did Mr. Swinburne's own "Songs before Sunrise" and "Both well" at a later date. Browning she greatly admired. Tennyson was comparatively unappreciated until her latter days, when she was wont to speak of him with enthusiasm.
