great wherever he went, he paid no visits of mere ceremony, but
spoke out most fearlessly, even to the most exalted in rank, about the
abuses he found in the prisons under their control. He had set himself
one great work to do, and he did it. Suffering, toil, hardship were
endured without a murmur. Ah! was not this true heroism?

"And now I come to a point which I want you, dear Walter, specially to
notice. Howard might have spent a portion at least of his time when
abroad in visiting the beautiful picture-galleries and other works of
art in the towns to which his great work led him, but he never suffered
himself to do so. He would not even read a newspaper, lest it should
divert his thoughts from the one great purpose he had in view. I am not
saying for a moment that he would have been wrong to indulge himself
with relaxation in the shape of sight-seeing and reading the news; but
surely when he made everything bend to his one grand self-imposed duty,
we are constrained to admire and not to blame, far less to ridicule, his
magnificent heroism. Yes; he never swerved, he never drew back; and,
best of all, he did his work as a humble and earnest Christian, carrying
it on by that strength and wisdom which he sought and obtained by
prayer.

"I cannot give you a better summing up of my hero's character than in
the words of the great Edmund Burke. I have them here." Saying which
she opened a small manuscript book containing extracts from various
authors in her own handwriting, which she kept in her work-basket, and
read as follows:--"`He has visited all Europe, not to survey the
sumptuousness of palaces, or the stateliness of temples; not to make
accurate measurements of the remains of ancient grandeur, nor to form a
scale of the curiosities of ancient art; not to collect medals, nor to
collate manuscripts: but to dive into the depths of dungeons, and to
plunge into the infection of hospitals; to survey the mansions of sorrow
and pain; to take the gauge and dimensions of misery, depression, and
contempt; to remember the forgotten, to attend to the neglected, to
visit the forsaken, and to compare the distresses of men in all
countries. His plan is original, and it is as full of genius as it is
of humanity. It was a voyage of discovery--a circumnavigation, of
charity.' Such was Burke's true estimate of my hero. And surely never
was a nobler heroism--it was so pure, so unselfish; for when they would
have erected a m