3. For what purpose did she write "Casa Guidi Windows"? 4. Had she a profound knowledge of man? 5. What particular defects strike one in her style? 6. Why is she at her best when writing in the sonnet form? 7. Compare her verse with that of Mrs. Hemans, Lucy Larcom, Shelley, Keats, and Longfellow. "THE CRY OF THE CHILDREN" 1. What protest does "The Cry of the Children" voice? 2. Since this poem was written have steps been taken to improve the condition of children who work? Name some of the limitations of child labor in your state. 3. To what country does "our happy Fatherland" refer? 4. What potent evil now partially remedied by law was prevalent in the factories and mines of those days? 5. Were the sanitary conditions of the factories regulated by law, such as light, cleanliness, etc.? (See encyclopedia.) 6. How is the moral and physical life of a child affected by such close and continuous application to work of this character? 7. What would Mrs. Browning make the guiding principle in the solution of economic ills? FOR REFERENCE "The Book of Noble Englishwomen."--BRUCE. "Elizabeth Barrett Browning" ("Famous Women.")--INGRAM. "The Brownings; Their Life and Art."--WHITING. "Florence in the Poetry of the Brownings."--MCMAHAN. "The Letters of E. B. Browning."--Ed. KENYON. WASHINGTON IRVING (1783-1859) Washington Irving has the distinction of being the only one of our early writers of eminence born in the metropolis; and, with the exception of Cooper, the only one born outside of New England. The youngest son of a well-to-do New York merchant, he was born in 1783, just after the close of the Revolutionary War. He was, therefore, very properly christened "Washington." It is said that some years after, he was brought to President Washington, who, on being told that he was a namesake, laid his hand upon him and bestowed his blessing. Little could the Father of His Country have realized that the benediction would bear fruit and that the recipient thereof was to become the Prince of American Letters. Like many other authors he studied for the bar, but found neither law nor politics congenial. Though well-read, his education was unsystematic. His first literary endeavors appeared in "Salmagundi," a semimonthly periodical in which he collaborated with his brother and James Kirk Paulding. This was followed by his inimitable "Knickerbocker's History of New York," still among the greatest masterpieces of American humor, which established his reputation. In 1814 he sailed for Europe, where the next seventeen years of his life were spent. Several years were divided between Great Britain and France, where the "Sketch-Book," "Bracebridge Hall," and "Tales of a Traveler" were written. Afterwards he spent some years in Spain writing his striking series of works descriptive of Spanish history and antiquities--"The Conquest of Granada," "The Alhambra," etc.