of praise of it, which has reached us from our readers.  I do not think anything since the National Era and ’Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ times has been more heartily received by newspaper readers.  I am sure it will have a great sale if rightly brought before the public.  A publisher from London was in our office the other day, signifying a desire to make some arrangement to bring it out there.  I have heard almost no unfavorable criticism of the story—­nothing which you could make serviceable in its revision.  I have heard Dr. P. criticise Ernest—­of course the character and not your portrayal.  For myself I consider the character a natural and consistent one.  Perhaps few men are found who are quite so blind to a wife’s wants and yet so devoted, but—­I don’t know what the wives might say.  We have had hundreds of letters of which the expression has been, ’We quarrel to see who shall have the first reading of the story.’  I congratulate you most heartily upon its great success and the great good it has done and will yet do.  I think if you should ever come West my wife would overturn almost any stone for the sake of welcoming you to the hospitality of our cottage on the Lake Michigan shore.”

[5] Marchant vers le Ciel is the title of the French translation.

[6] Memorial discourse by the Rev. Marvin R. Vincent, D.D.

[7] The following is an extract from a letter, dated New Orleans, and written after Mrs. Prentiss’ death: 

“We called one day to see a poor dressmaker who was dying of consumption.  She was an educated woman, a devout Roman Catholic, and a person whom we had long respected and esteemed for her integrity, her love of independence, and her extraordinary powers of endurance.  Her husband, a prosperous merchant, had died suddenly, and his affairs being mismanaged, she was obliged, although a constant invalid, to earn a support for many years by the most unremitting labor.  We found her reading; ‘Stepping Heavenward,’ which she spoke of in the warmest terms.  We told her about the authoress, of her suffering from ill-health, and of her recent death.  She listened eagerly and asked questions which showed the deepest interest in the subject.  Soon after she left the city, and a few weeks later we heard of her death.”

[8] One of them—­said to have been an eminent German theologian—­used this strong language respecting it:  “Schon manche gute, edle, segensreiche Gabe ist uns aus Nordamerika gekommen, aber wir stehen nicht au, diese als die beste zu bezeichnen unter allen, die uns von dort zu Gesichte gekommen.”

[9] See A Memorial of the Character, Work, and Closing Days of Rev. Wheelock Craig, New Bedford.