she found herself confronted with difficulties which she had not foreseen. German and English were equally familiar to her; but a mere literal rendering could not satisfy her artistic conscience; and at first she found it most difficult to obtain "a right view of the subject matter." She persevered gallantly, and at length produced a translation satisfactory to Strauss himself, and which passed through three editions. It was not her fault if her aspiration to present England with an epoch-making book was disappointed. Strauss remains the author of the Leben Jesu.
The autumn of 1873 took Mathilde on a tour of the highest importance to her, as it resulted in the production of her finest poetical work. Scotland does not appear to have previously possessed any special attraction for her, but she now found herself much at home there, and the ultimate result was her "Prophecy of St. Oran," and "Heather on Fire." "St. Oran," and, was conceived and begun in the Highlands, but not finished till some years afterwards under the vivifying influence of her residence at Manchester. Of all her longer poems it is the most powerful, the most original, and the most artistically wrought, without a line too much or too little. The striking theme is derived from an ecclesiastical legend holding a place in hagiological literature akin to that which, in the opinion of some, the Book of Job occupies in the Hebrew Canon—the resurrection of a saint to intimate that the faith in which he died is not true. Mathilde's conception of early Christianity on its strongest side displays deep insight as well as a truly catholic spirit, and gained her an approving letter from a Bishop. The "Heather on Fire," although very different, and not as highly finished as "St. Oran," yet an equally powerful and eloquent poem, was conceived about this period, but not executed until
