In the middle years of the eighties Mrs. Moulton began to send to the _Boston Herald_ a series of literary letters from London, and these she continued for a number of years. She was especially well fitted for the undertaking by her wide acquaintance with English writers, her unusual power of appreciating work not yet endorsed by public approval, and her sympathetic instinct for literary quality. The work, while arduous, gave her pleasure, chiefly because it provided opportunity for her to give encouragement and aid to others, and to help to make better known writers and work not yet appreciated in America. "I am sending a literary letter each week to the _Boston Herald_," she writes Mr. Stedman. "It is hard work, but it gives me the pleasure of expressing myself about the current literature. I believe the letters are accounted a success." Many were the letters of gratitude which came to her from those of whom she had written. The sympathetic quality of her approval, so rarely found in combination with critical judgment, made her praise especially grateful. Not only did she interest and enlighten her reading public, but she encouraged and inspired those of whom she wrote. Other letters of grateful recognition came now and then from artists of whose work she had written in verse. After a visit to the studio of Burne-Jones in London she was inspired to write the admirable and subtle lyric "Laus Veneris," upon his picture of that name. Pallid with too much longing, White with passion and prayer, Goddess of love and beauty, She sits in the picture there,-- Sits with her dark eyes seeking Something more subtle still Than the old delights of loving Her measureless days to fill. She has loved and been loved so often, In the long, immortal years, That she tires of the worn-out rapture, Sickens of hopes and fears. No joys or sorrows move her, Done with her ancient pride; For her head she found too heavy The crown she has cast aside. Clothed in her scarlet splendor, Bright with her glory of hair, Sad that she is not mortal,-- Eternally sad and fair,-- Longing for joys she knows not, Athirst with a vain desire, There she sits in the picture, Daughter of foam and fire. [Illustration: FACSIMILE OF THE ORIGINAL DRAFT OF "LAUS VENERIS," IN MRS. MOULTON'S HANDWRITING _Page 143_] It is not to be wondered that the artist wrote in warm acknowledgment: _Mr. Burne-Jones to Mrs. Moulton_