And it
is the only subject on which I ever knew her to feel in any degree
bitterly. Many of her verses written during her latter years are
fiercely denunciatory or humorously satirical of the Italian
priesthood, and especially of the Pontifical Government. I wish that
my space permitted me to give further specimens of them here. But I
must content myself with giving one line, which haunts my memory, and
appears to me excessively happy In the accurate truthfulness of its
simile. She is writing of the journey which Pius the Ninth made, and
describing his equipment, says that he started "with strings of cheap
blessings, like glass beads for savages."
With the exception of this strong sentiment my wife was one of the
most tolerant people I ever knew. What she most avoided in those with
whom she associated was, not so much ignorance, or even vulgarity of
manner, as pure native stupidity. But even of that, when the need
arose, she was tolerant. I never knew her in the selection of an
acquaintance, or even of a friend, to be influenced to the extent
of even a hair's-breadth, by station, rank, wealth, fashion, or any
consideration whatever, save personal liking and sympathy, which was,
in her case, perfectly compatible with the widest divergence of views
and opinions on nearly any of the great subjects which most divide
mankind, and even with divergence of rules of conduct. Her own
opinions were the honest results of original thinking, and her conduct
the outcome of the dictates of her own heart--of her heart rather than
of her reasoning powers, or of any code of law--a condition of mind
which might be dangerous to individuals with less native purity of
heart than hers.
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