presentation--in the calm gladness that springs from a delight in
objects for their own sake, without self-reference--in divine sympathy
with the lowliest pleasures, with the most shortlived capacity for
pain? Here is no railing at the earth's "melancholy map," but the
happiest lingering over her simplest scenes with all the fond
minuteness that belongs to love; no pompous rhetoric about the
inferiority of the brutes, but a warm plea on their behalf against
man's inconsiderateness and cruelty, and a sense of enlarged happiness
from their companionship in enjoyment; no vague rant about human misery
and human virtue, but that close and vivid presentation of particular
deeds and misdeeds, which is the direct road to the emotions. How
Cowper's exquisite mind falls with the mild warmth of morning sunlight
on the commonest objects, at once disclosing every detail and investing
every detail with beauty! No object is too small to prompt his song--
not the sooty film on the bars, or the spoutless teapot holding a bit
of mignonette that serves to cheer the dingy town lodging with a "hint
that nature lives;" and yet his song is never trivial, for he is alive
to small objects, not because his mind is narrow, but because his
glance is clear and his heart is large.

Her contributions to the _Westminster Review_ indicate that Marian Evans
had read much and well, and that she was possessed of a thoroughly
cultivated mind and much learning. To their preparation she gave herself
diligently, writing slowly, after a careful study of her subject and much
thought devoted to a faithful thinking out of all its parts. It has been
many times suggested that these articles gave indication only of learning
and studious effort. They certainly give strong hint of these, but also of
much more. That on human life shows how much she had thought, and how
thoroughly and philosophically, on one of the largest problems; while the
one on Heine indicates her penetrating literary judgment and her capacity