The victor o’er thyself art thou!

Thy country’s good thy only aim,

Thou couldst thy life’s loved dream resign;—

Then take the meed thy virtues claim,

And be the world’s loud plaudit thine!

Shortly before Mrs. Opie left England, she had written to Mr. Southey, who answered her in a letter which was published in his “Memoirs.” In this letter he mentioned that he had sent her a copy of his “Colloquies,”—in which he had referred to her in these terms:—

“I have another woman in my mind’s eye; one who has been the liveliest of the lively, the gayest of the gay; admired for her talents by those who knew her only in her writings, and esteemed for her worth by those who were acquainted with her in the relations of private life; one who, having grown up in the laxest sect of semi-christians, felt the necessity of vital religion, while attending upon her father with dutiful affection, during the long and painful infirmities of his old age; and who has now joined a sect, distinguished from all others by its formalities and enthusiasm, because it was among its members that she first found the lively faith for which her soul thirsted. She has assumed the garb and even the shibboleth of the sect, not losing, in the change, her warmth of heart and cheerfulness of spirit, nor gaining by it any increase of sincerity and frankness; for with these, nature had endued her, and society, even that of the great, had not corrupted them. The resolution, the activity, the genius, the benevolence, which are required for such a work, are to be found in her; and were she present in person, as she is in imagination, I would say to her * * Thou art the woman!”[[30]]

“The work” in which Mr. Southey was anxious to engage the sympathies and aid of Mrs. Fry and Mrs. Opie, was the establishment of Societies for reforming the internal management of Hospitals and Infirmaries; so as “to do for the hospitals what Mrs. Fry had already done for the prisons.”

On her return to England, Mrs. Opie wrote to Mrs. Fry, communicating Mr. Southey’s letter; she replied:—

Upton, 12th, 12th mo., 1829.