Laura E. Richards, Maud Howe, Florence Howe Hall, Julia Ward Howe, 1819-1910, in two volumes, with portraits and other illustrations: volume 1

Apropos of Mr. Fowler's “more religion than morality,” she said: “Morality is a thing of the will; we may think differently of such matters at different times. What he said may have been true.”

Then the twinkle came into her eyes: “When Mr. William Astor heard of my engagement, he said, ‘Why, Miss Julia, I am surprised! I thought you were too intellectual to marry!’ ”

Another acquaintance of this autumn was the late Arthur Mills, who was through life one of our parents' most valued friends. He came to America with them; in his honor, during the voyage, Julia composed “The Milsiad,” scribbling the lines day by day in a little note-book, still carefully preserved in the Mills family.

The first and last stanzas give an idea of this poem, which, though never printed, was always a favorite with its author.

My heart fills
With the bare thought of the illustrious Mills:
That man of eyes and nose,
Of legs and arms, of fingers and of toes.

To lands devoid of tax
Goeth he not, armed with axe?
Trees shall he cut down,
And forests ever?
Tame cataracts with a frown?
Grin all the fish from Mississippi River?
(My style is grandiose,
Quite in the tone of Mills's nose.)

Harp of the West, through wind and foggy weather
We've sung our passage to our native land,
Now I have reached the terminus of tether,