During these years at Warrington she wrote for her own pleasure, and when her brother John returned home after several years’ absence, he helped her to arrange and publish a selection of her poems.  The little book which appeared in 1773 was highly praised, and ran through four editions within a year.  In spite of grace and fluency, most of these verses seem flat and antiquated to the modern reader.  Of the spirited first poem ‘Corsica,’ Dr. Priestley wrote to her:—­“I consider that you are as much a general as Tyrtaeus was, and your poems (which I am confident are much better than his ever were) may have as great effect as his.  They may be the coup de grace to the French troops in that island, and Paoli, who reads English, will cause it to be printed in every history in that renowned island.”

Miss Aikin’s next venture was a small volume in collaboration with her brother, ‘Miscellaneous Pieces in Prose by J. and A.L.  Aikin.’  This too was widely read and admired.  Samuel Rogers has related an amusing conversation about the book in its first vogue:—­“I am greatly pleased with your ‘Miscellaneous Pieces,’” said Charles James Fox to Mrs. Barbauld’s brother.  Dr. Aikin bowed.  “I particularly admire,” continued Fox, “your essay ‘Against Inconsistency in our Expectations.’” “That,” replied Aikin, “is my sister’s.”  “I like much,” continued Fox, “your essay on ‘Monastic Institutions.’” “That,” answered Aikin, “is also my sister’s.”  Fox thought it wise to say no more about the book.  The essay ‘Against Inconsistency in our Expectations’ was most highly praised by the critics, and pronounced by Mackintosh “the best short essay in the language.”

When thirty years old, Laetitia Aikin married Rochemont Barbauld, and went to live at Palgrave in Suffolk, where her husband opened a boys’ school, soon made popular by her personal charm and influence.  Sir William Gell, a classic topographer still remembered; William Taylor, author of a ’Historic Survey of German Poetry ’; and Lord Chief Justice Denman, were a few among the many who looked back with gratitude to a childhood under her care.

Perhaps her best known work is the ‘Early Lessons for Children,’ which was written during this period.  Coming as it did when, as Hannah More said, there was nothing for children to read between ‘Cinderella’ and the Spectator, it was largely welcomed, and has been used by generations of English children.  The lessons were written for a real little Charles, her adopted son, the child of her brother, Dr. Aikin.  For him, too, she wrote her ‘Hymns in Prose for Children,’ a book equally successful, which has been translated into French, German, Spanish, Italian, and even Latin.