After eleven busy years at Palgrave, during which, in spite of her cheerful energy, Mrs. Barbauld had been much harassed by the nervous irritability of her invalid husband, the Barbaulds gave up their school and treated themselves to a year of Continental travel.  On their return they settled at Hampstead, where Mr. Barbauld became pastor of a small Unitarian congregation.  The nearness to London was a great advantage to Mrs. Barbauld’s refreshed activity, and she soon made the new home a pleasant rendezvous for literary men and women.  At one of her London dinner parties she met Sir Walter Scott, who declared that her reading of Taylor’s translation of Buerger’s ‘Lenore’ had inspired him to write poetry.  She met Dr. Johnson too, who, though he railed at her after his fashion, calling her Deborah and Virago Barbauld, did sometimes betray a sincere admiration for her character and accomplishments.  Miss Edgeworth and Hannah More were dear friends and regular correspondents.

From time to time she published a poem or an essay; not many, for in spite of her brother’s continual admonition to write, hers was a somewhat indolent talent.  In 1790 she wrote a capable essay upon the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts; a year later, a poetical epistle to Mr. Wilberforce on the Slave Trade; in 1792, a defense of Public Worship; and in 1793, a discourse as to a Fast Day upon the Sins of Government.

In 1808 her husband’s violent death, the result of a long insanity, prostrated her for a time.  Then as a diversion from morbid thought she undertook an edition of the best English novels in fifty volumes, for which she wrote an admirable introductory essay.  She also made a compilation from the Spectator, Tatler, Guardian, and Free-holder, with a preliminary discourse, which she published in 1811.  It was called ’The Female Speaker,’ and intended for young women.  The same year her ‘Eighteen Hundred and Eleven,’ a patriotic didactic poem, wounded national self-love and drew upon her much unfriendly criticism, which so pained her that she would publish no more.  But the stirring lines were widely read, and in them Macaulay found the original of his famous traveler from New Zealand, who meditates on the ruined arches of London Bridge.  Her prose style, in its light philosophy, its humorously sympathetic dealing with every-day affairs, has been often compared with Addison’s.

Her old age was serene and happy, rich in intellectual companionships and in the love and respect of many friends.  Somewhere she speaks of “that state of middling life to which I have been accustomed and which I love.”  She disliked extremes, in emotion as in all things, and took what came with cheerful courage.  The poem ‘Life,’ which the self-satisfied Wordsworth wished that he had written, expresses her serene and philosophic spirit.

AGAINST INCONSISTENCY IN OUR EXPECTATIONS