en say,
"She wrought her people lasting good;

"Her court was pure; her life serene;
God gave her peace; her land reposed;
A thousand claims to reverence closed
In her as Mother, Wife, and Queen;

"And statesmen at her council met
Who knew the seasons when to take
Occasion by the hand, and make
The bounds of freedom wider yet

"By shaping some august decree,
Which kept her throne unshaken still,
Broad-based upon her people's will,
And compass'd by the inviolate sea."

[Sidenote: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley]

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, daughter of Godwin and wife of the poet
Shelley, died during this year. She wrote some half dozen novels and
stories, the best of which was "Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus."
The weird story, which was written in 1816 in a spirit of friendly rivalry
with Shelley and Byron, achieved great popularity. This was largely by
reason of the originality of the author's conception of the artificial
creation of a human monster which came to torment its maker. Mrs. Shelley's
last book was an account of rambles in Germany and Italy. She also brought
out a careful edition of her husband's complete works.

[Sidenote: Death of Turner]

[Sidenote: "The Slave Ship"]

Joseph M.W. Turner, the most celebrated English artist of the Nineteenth
Century, died in this same year. Born in 1775, he displayed his artistic
talents at an early age. At the outset of the Nineteenth Century he
achieved a national reputation by his "Battle of the Nile," but did not
reach the apotheosis of his fame until Ruskin sang his praises. One of his
most discussed pictures was that of the "Slave Ship," which has in turn
excited the most scathing ridicule and the most extravagant admiration.
Thus George Inness, the American artist, wrote of him: "Turner's 'Slave
Ship' is the most infernal piece of clap-trap ever painted. There is
nothing in it." Thackeray confessed with delightful frankness: "I don't
know whether it is sublime or ridiculous." Mark Twain, the American
humorist, has voiced both of these views at once, whereas Ruskin has
recorded:

[Sidenote: Ruskin's estimate]

"I believe if I were reduced to rest Turner's immortality upon any single
work, I should choose 'The Slave Ship.' Its daring conception, ideal in the
highest sense of the word, is based on the purest truth, and wrought out
with the concentrated knowledge of a life. Its color is absolutely perfect,
not