man triumph ... turn not thou away
Contemptuous from the theme. No Maid of Arc
Had, in those ages, for her country's cause
Wielded the sword of freedom; no Roland
Had borne the palm of female fortitude;
No Conde with self-sacrificing zeal
Had glorified again the Avenger's name,
As erst when Caesar perished; haply too
Some strains may hence be drawn, befitting me
To offer, nor unworthy thy regard."

Shelley too offered her the tribute of his praise in verse. In the
dedication of the "Revolt of Islam," addressed to his wife, he thus
alludes to the latter's famous mother:--

"They say that thou wert lovely from thy birth,
Of glorious parents, thou aspiring child.
I wonder not; for one then left the earth
Whose life was like a setting planet mild
Which clothed thee in the radiance undefiled
Of its departing glory."

But the mere admiration of Southey and Shelley had little weight against
popular prejudice. Year by year Mary's books, like so many other literary
productions, were less frequently read, and the prediction that in
another generation her name would be unknown bade fair to be fulfilled.
But the latest of her admirers, Mr. Kegan Paul, has, by his zealous
efforts in her behalf, succeeded in vindicating her character and
reviving interest in her writings. By his careful history of her life,
and noble words in her defence, he has re-established her reputation. As
he says himself, "Only eighty years after her death has any serious
attempt been made to set her right in the eyes of those who will choose
to see her as she was." His attempt has been successful. No one after
reading her sad story as he tells it in his Life of Godwin, can doubt her
moral uprightness. His statement of her case attracted the attention it
deserved. Two years after it appeared, Miss Mathilde Blind published, in
the "New Quarterly Review," a paper containing a briefer sketch of the
incidents he recorded, and expressing an honest recognition of this great
but much-maligned woman.

Thus, at this late day, the attacks of her enemies are being defeated.
The critic who declared the condition of the trees planted near her grave
to be symbolical of her fate, were he living now, would be forced to
change the conclusions he drew from his comparison. In that part of Saint
Pancras Churchyard which lies between the two railroad bridges, and which
has not been included in the restored garden,