RITA (New Zealand).—1. Your question from _In Memoriam_ is a very thoughtful one. The poet is describing a man who, being troubled by religious doubts, does not try to stifle them by simply resting on the authority of a Church and telling himself, “I must not doubt, for it is wicked.” He looks these doubts—“the spectres of the mind”—fully in the face, searches for the answer, and, as Truth does not fear investigation, he succeeds in dispersing them; even as a fabled ghost can usually be disproved by someone who will bravely face the supposed apparition and find out what it really amounts to. The man who fights this battle honestly, and conquers, wins in the end a stronger faith than the man who merely asserts, without thought; and in the temporary darkness of his perplexity God is with him still—for God is the God both of the light and of the darkness. This magnificent passage you must understand as applying only to those who really seek in an earnest and reverent spirit after Truth, not to the flippant scoffer.—2. We answered this question in July, 1897, and must refer you to the volume _Twilight Hours_ (Messrs. Isbister & Co.) containing the poems of Sarah Williams (Sadie). A MERRY SUNBEAM (Belgium).—1. Certainly a young girl of 15½ may wear long skirts and put up her hair if she is unusually tall “without looking ridiculous.” She will be taken to be older than she really is, which may be a disadvantage to her.—2. The expression “teens” is taken from the termination of the numbers thirteen to nineteen inclusive, and “hazel” is brown, like the brown of the hazel nut. We go to press long before you receive your magazine, and we are sorry you have to wait so long for replies. You write English very well, considering it is not your native language, but we have no objection at all to receiving letters in French from any of our subscribers. BEATRICE CENCI.—The heroine whose name you adopt lived in Rome during the sixteenth century, and a very touching and beautiful portrait of her by Guido exists in the Barberini Palace there. Her father was a monster of cruelty and wickedness, and she was driven at length to plot with her step-mother and brother to murder him, in order to escape from his tyranny. The deed was discovered, and Beatrice with the other criminals was put to death by order of the Pope. Her father had constantly bought his pardon from the Pope for the murders _he_ had committed on his own account, and the infamy of his life, combined with the natural gentleness of Beatrice, awoke a widespread feeling of compassion for her doom, in spite of the nature of her act. ERICA.—Your quotation is from the first verse of a song by Thomas Linley (1798-1865), written and composed by him for Mr. Augustus Braham. The whole verse runs as follows:— “Tho’ lost to sight, to memory dear Thou ever wilt remain; One only hope my heart can cheer— The hope to meet again.”