MARY HOWITT.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVI, Issue 21, 14 September 1888, Page 23

MARY HOWITT.

(From the Month.) "We thought, too. of those ' dark ages of Papacy,' of which we had heard onr father speak, and which always had impressed upon my mind an idea of the daylight itself being dim then— a sort of natural obscuration over everything. I had not then taken into my mind the idea of a moral darkness." This passage occurs in connection with a proposed visit to Caverswall Castle, " an old moated hous>, which was about to be purchased by some rich Catholics, who weie refugees from Fiance, and w»s to become immediately a nunnery. 1 ' Tt is now the properiy ul one of the Wedgwood famny. ll Our father did not talk of these people as l'api&tx, but as Catholics as refugee Catholics ; and we iuh a itlv had the greatest regard for ihem, as being pen-ocuted by that arch-'oi mentor, Napoleon." Many yems later— some seven or eight after nei m image— she again visited Civerswall, and brought back a doll-nun f,»i one of her nieces, an I an ivory crucifix. " ->he showed this to me," writes ter niece, •• and my mother said, ' Mary, does thee not thihk it is wrong to have buc la pi.cc of idola'ry as that figure?' My aunt, I mneinber, smiled, and said • ' Well, yes. Anm dear, 1 daie say it is, but I bought it became it seemed to mj so beautiful. I shall give it away, no doubt." ' Jna britf skeich such as this, it is impossible to give anything like a detailed b'ography ol Mary llowitt. Nor is this reiessary°; for she has wiitten an accurate account of her life in the volumes oi •' Good Words ' forl88,"> aad 188 G. The " Reminiscences of My Life," as a "ie called them, aiv full of interest; an I the simple, straightf>rwarlwayin which they are nai rate 1 lends them a special chaim It may be hoped that they will be brought before the public in a collected form, supplemented, of coun-e, by many personal traits legarding the writer and her character, whic.i she herself could haidly supply. As might be expected, the information ahouc herseii i 9 incidental ; tt at about the mmy peip'e wnom she kne.v is varied and lnieie^tiug. One fact may b<: nott d : her mother, actuated by that "aident craving for spiritual li^ht and rjat," which later led her daughter into the One Fold, was at o-ie time '• led to inquire into the Catholic Faith," and even contemplate 1 entering a conveat. She, however, jiekkd to an earlier influence, and joined the Society of Friends. We cannot pass over unnoticed the literary c >reer of Mrs. Howitt. Herwoiks fill some forty pages of the British Museum catalogue, and date from 1823 in which yeir •• Tbe Forest Minstrel," by Wuham and Mary Huwiti, made its appearance. Shn: ha i mairied in 1821. There is evidently more, of the wife than the husband in this little book, and this, 1 believe, was the cast; with other works published in both names. Ii is note worthy that the preface recognises while it justifies the " latitude uf phrase and of sentiment which as membars ci' the Society of Friends we have allowed ourselves ' In her novel. "Wood Leighton," pub'islei in 18:*G, the scene of which was laid in toe nei hborhood of Nottingham, the imp cjudiccd treat, ment of Catholic matters, and the sympithetic sketch of the " poor but pious' Father Cradock, musl have been noticed at a time when the new Oxford school was directing attention towards Rome. la 1847 Mrs. Howitt published her volume of •■ Ballads."' To this is prefixed a portrait of herself, in which it is difficult to trace the sweet expression of the pho ograph taken a year or so before her death. In this volume her best poetical work is to be found, and affection for tbs old religion is continually manifesting itself, notably in "Lilian May, an Easter Legend," •' The Sin of Earl Walter," " The Abbey Garden," and " Willie o' Wyburn. ' The last she was anxious should be re-issuod by the Catholic Truth Society, in the work of which Bhe. was warmly interested ; and it may be hoped that this and other of

her poems may some day be reprinted by that body. " The Poor Man's Garden " is a beautiful little poem, and •• The Fairies of the Oaldon Low " deservedly finds a plnca in more than one selection of our best ballads. A short specimen of her verse may be qaotnd here : THE FISHERMAN'S SONG. Going Out. Briskly blows the evening gale, Fre9h and free it blows ; Blessings on the fishing-boat, How merrily she goes ! Christ He loved the fishermen, Walking by the sea, How He blest the fishing-boats Down in Galilee 1 Dark the night and wild the wave, Christ the boat is keeping ; Trust in Him and have no fear, Though He seemeth sleeping. Coming In. Briskly blows tbe morning breeze, Fresh and strong it blows ; Blessings on the fishing-boat, How steadily she goes ! Christ He loved the fishermen ; And He blessed the net Which tbe hopeless fishera threw In Gennesaret. He has blest our going oat, Ble3t, too, our returning ; Given us laden nets at night, And fair wind in the morning. The preface to the '• Ballads," with its incidental remark, " The love of Christ, of the poor, and of little children, alwayi were and will be ruling sentiments of my soul," is very characteristic. Tbe remainder of hit literary work consisted of other volumes of verse on birds, insects and flowers ; translations of the works of Frederika Breaaer, the Swedish authorcs3, who owed to Mary Howitt her introduction to the English-speaking public ; two or three novels, a translation of H»ns Andersen's " Improvisatore," stories for children, many with a deep but not disagreeably obtruded moral purpose, which are still from time to time reprinted ; biographical sketches and contributions to various periodicals, besides various works pub'ished in the joint names of herself and her husband, in which it ig understood that she had the larger share. From Nottingham tbe Hiwicts went to London, living for a long time at Clapton, and th-^n going down into Surrey, near Bsher. Then they wsat to the Tyrol, residing in a picturesque old house at Dietenheim, the large™ part of which was tenanted by a peasant farmer, with his children and grandchildren. These assambled daily for prayers in the private chapel which f >rmel pirt of tbe house, and before the altar hung a silver l.unp which was presented to his fyrolese friends by William Howitt, who had procured it in Rome, having before presenting it obaiucd for it the blessing of the Pope— a pleasant tr.at in one who had undoubtedly written and spoken many strong things against the Church. Their visits to Home ware frequent, and it was here that Wilnana Howitt, "in submission to his Reieemer, and in love ti all mankind, passed away on Monday afternoon, March 31, 1879."' A yea^ later, May 26th, 1880, his widow laid the first stone of the house wbica sue had built for herself at Meraa in the Tyrol, and which she called by the pretty name Marianruha, or " Mary's Rest "—a title which was appropriate in more senses than one. After this came that period of perplexity and doabt— the longing fjr a Bare guide and an authoritative teacher — which only those who have b^en outsi le the f jld can fully enter into or understand. " 1 consulted this mm and that, this clergyman and the o'ber," she wrote some little time after h t conversion, " and I will say that Mr. Biuney was the most satisfactory of them all ; but they could settle nothing, all they advise i was indefini<e." Her sister Anna had some years before this become a member of the Cauich of JKagland, and Mrs. Howitt sought by every means to attain to the peace and rest that the former uLieignedly felt. Her attraorion t iwaris the Catholic Church was greatly sirenijthen-jd by the conversion of. her daughter Margaret, who lived with her. Miss Howitt waa intimate with the adopted niece of Overbeck, ard was invited by this lady to write a lif> of the artist. In order to qualify herself for thi9 task, she read through hie very voluminous correspondence. Numerous letters on disputed points of doctrine and Courch history formed part of the collection ; and Miss Howitt not only icad the*e, but also every accessible b >ok to which reference was made in them. In the end sho became convioced of the truth of ths faith which Overbeck professed, and was received into tbe Church. It will have been mtml'est that Mrs. Howitt was free from much oJ the piejudice which is, as Cardinal Newman has shown, " th« strength of the Protestant view"'; and it has also beea evident that many d the aspects of Catholicity had a distinct attraction for her. But, especially in these later days, it is within tbe experience of each one of us that something moie than this free lorn from prejudice and sympathy with the Church is needs 1 for conver-ion. The agnostic and the ritualist, each f rotn his own standpoint, fecla the attraction of Catholicity ; but as a thing outside him, not as a matter which it of vital importance. He may not go so Ur aa to echo the words, " O that thy cre^d were sound, For thou dost sjothe the heart, thou Church of Roma 1" but he will not follow their author through the ways whicb led him to find that the Church not only soothed the heart but satisfied tbe mind of the earnest seeker after truth. Mary Howitt had long been in search of God. Naturally of a religious turn of mind, with a love of beauty and culture, and an intense sympathy for humanity, the severity of Quakerism repelled

rather thin Attracted her. "T^e s'rictness and abnegation of all I pleasures were loreiga to her joyous nature, and the thought of being in a degree freed from this thraldom, as she used to call it, was one of the attractions of her marriage ;." and although the ceremony of matrimony was solemnised at the Friend's Meeting, she appeared tbe first Bunday of her married life, at a Catholic eh .pel. Her second visit to Cavers wall has already bee n spoken of. There was a period of seeming nobelief ; aid then, about 1855, Mrs. H>witt and her husband became interested in spiritualism. One who knew her well, and to whom I am indented for mmch information, says it was through the influence of this delnnion thai a belief in the docrine of the Blessed Trinity was awakened in both — so wonderfully does God over-rule everything tojhis own jpnrposal— and it was then that tha phrase, '' Our dear Lord," became familiar to her lips. However this may be, when she became a Catholic Mrs. Howitt waß emphatic in her denunciation of spiritualism, which she said, on one occasion, " was one of the greatest misfortunes that ever visited us. It was false — all false, and fnll of lies. Revelations seemed to come from tbe other world, and they were nothing but suggestion! of the deril. I look upon it as all falM and wrong." Mrs. Howitt, who gave her daughter some assistance in her work, became interested and sympathetic ; Bhe made the acquaintance of several priests, and through them and through her reading seemed to realise in some measure the position of tbe Church as a definite teacher and guide. Still she did not wish to be baptised, and although Mies Howitt had her mother's full approval and sympathy, it did not seem that her example would be followed. But a dream — a vision — or what seemed to her a supernatural warning — left her no room for doubt, and led to the happy issue which hid been so long delayed. " The end is come and thon art not saved." These words seemed to sound through her room with awful distinctness, rousing Mrs. Howitt from her sleep, and indeed destroying, at any rate for that night, tbe possibility of further repose. While under its influence, a visitor came to her bonse— Father Robiana, a Dominican. "I had always a prejudice against the Dominicans," Mrs. Howitt would say when narrating this event ; "they had been persecutors, and I had therefore conceived a dislike to them, one and all. So as this gentleman was coming on this particular day, I arranged with Maggie that she should do the talking and entertaining, while 1 would make the tea, for, you see, I d'd Dot wish to have to be polite to him." But the sight of this dreaded visitor removed all prejudice. When he entered the room. " a tall grand man, in the beautiful white robs of his Order, I looked Dp, and •uch a strange feeling came over me — it might have been the figure of onr Lord." The good Father was indeed destined to receive into God's Church this soul, as he had before reconciled many others. After a period of instruction which was not a very loog one— for the careful reading of many years had produced its effect — Mary Howitt became a Catholic in the summer of 1883. " I was received with every solemnity and every ceremony that has come down for eighteen hundred years for the baptism of adults. Nothing was omitted, no •ingle detail was left out ; it is a grand ceremony and a mysterious -rite, and I am thankful it was done in completeness." From this time until her death, no doubt or perplexity seems to have crossed her miod ; and her yearly visits to Borne became more and more precious to her. Her leving intercourse with friends and relatives in England was in no way interfered with by her change of belief ; and her constant hope and prayer was that they might find the peace which was so dear to her. Tbe last public appearance of Mrs. Howitt was at the head of the English pilgrims who in January last approached the Holy Father. She had been unwell some time previously — troubled witb oold and other weaknesses — but it was an intense joy to her to take part in this loving tribute of affection to the Holy Fattier on the part of his English children.