risk of evil, and often through evil itself, a higher good may be attained. Browning's last word to the world, the epilogue to _Asolando_, is most distinctive of his style and tone of thought. He held throughout a steady optimism, all the more cheering because it is the optimism of a man of wide knowledge of the world, and one who has looked evil in the face. The note is never clearer than in the epilogue, where he describes himself as 'One who never turned his back but marched breast forward, Never doubted clouds would break, Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph, Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, Sleep to wake. 'No, at noonday in the bustle of man's work-time Greet the unseen with a cheer! Bid him forward, breast and back as either should be, Strive and thrive! Cry, "Speed,--fight on, fare ever There as here."' [Sidenote: Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861).] Elizabeth Barrett Browning was an author at an earlier date than her husband. As early as 1826 she published a poetical _Essay on Mind_, along with other pieces; but her first work of any note was _The Seraphim_ (1838). Her introduction to Browning took place in 1846. She was prepared to admire him, for she already admired his work, and had expressed her opinion of it in _Lady Geraldine's Courtship_. An accident in girlhood had made her a confirmed invalid; but in spite of this the two poets fell in love, and were married in the autumn of the year when they first met. They left England and settled at Florence for the sake of Mrs. Browning's health; and there, in 1861, she died. There are two points of special and peculiar interest in connexion with Mrs. Browning. She has only one possible rival, Christina Rossetti, for the honour of being the greatest poetess who has written in English; and her marriage with Browning formed a union without parallel in literature. Moreover, in relation to Mrs. Browning's works, sex is not a mere accident. She is a woman in all her modes of thought and feeling, and she is so especially in her very finest work. Her greatest contribution to literature, _Sonnets from the Portuguese_, derives its unique interest from being the expression of the woman's love; and _A Child's Grave at Florence_ could hardly have been written but by a woman and a mother.