Work for this cause formed the most keen and active interest of her
latest years. In this she thought and labored constantly. She gave her
name and support to other objects, but only quietly. Amongst other
things she was a member of the Women's Suffrage Society; and she was a
subscriber to the movement for the medical education of women.
In all public affairs, indeed, her interest remained keen and unabated
to the very last, as the letters for which I am indebted to Mr.
Atkinson, and which I am to quote, will abundantly show. These letters
will indicate, too, something of the quiet course of her now uneventful
daily life. Sick and weary as she was, it will be seen that literature
and politics, the public welfare, and the concerns of her household's
inmates, still occupied her thoughts and her pen.
LETTERS TO MR. ATKINSON.
August 24, 1870.
... I am as careful as possible to prevent anyone losing sleep on
my account, and being disturbed at meals, or failing in air,
exercise and pleasure. If these regular healthy habits of my
household become difficult, we are to have a trained nurse at once.
This is settled. I am disposed to think, myself, that the last
stage will be short, probably the end sudden.
The tone of this last sentence is no affectation. "She used to talk
about her death as if it meant no more than going into the next room,"
said one who knew her in these years.
September 10, 1870.
... I am not sure whether you have read Dr. Bence Jones's _Life
and Letters of Faraday_. I have been thankful, this last week,
for the strong interest of that book, which puts Continental
affairs out of my head for hours together. The first half volume
is rather tiresome--giving us four times as much as necessary of
the uncultivated youth's early prosing on crude moralities, etc.
It is quite right to give us _some_ of this, to show from how low
a point of thought and style he rose up to his perfection of
expression as a lecturer and writer; but a quarter of the early
stuff would have been enough for that. The succeeding part, for
hundreds of pages, is the richest treat I have had for many a
day. I can only distantly and dimly follow the scientific
lectures and writings; but I understand enough of sympathy; and
the disclosures of the moral nature of the man is perfectly
exquisite. I have never known, and have scarcely dreamed of, a
spirit and temper so thoroughly uniting the best attributes of
the sage and the child.
October 18, 1870.
I had my envelope directed yesterday, but was prevented writing,
and in the evening came your welcome letter. I am glad to know
_when_ you mean to leave your quarters; and every line from
France is interesting.