The Review of Reviews for July says:—“There is great pathetic interest attaching to these poems and to the opening chapters of ‘Ijain,’ ... and there is something touching in the longing desire so manifest in every page of Lady Florence’s writings to save other children from the misery through which she has emerged.... The story of Lady Florence’s pilgrimage from the first plank in her atheistic platform to her present position is told in ‘The Story of Ijain,’ which promises to be of considerable interest. It is a kind of demonstration in vivisectional anatomy of the living soul, from which most people would shrink ... and those who read it cannot fail to sympathise even if they do not agree.”
An American Appreciation.—The Boston Press Writer, the organ of the American Press Writers’ Association, Nov. 1902, says:—“We always like to think of the great Iconoclasts as a Roman Gladiator, striding into the arena armed with sword and shield hurling defiance at Cæsar and the world; but what picture can imagination conjure up when a child steps upon the scene and throws down the gauntlet which defies Cæsar and all the world. Kindness steals up from every page like perfume from a flower.... After reading the rubbish called poetry published to-day in newspaper and magazine; oceans of words nicely joined together, but a desert of ideas; it is refreshing to reach this oasis called ‘Songs of a Child.’ Sweet mingling of sentiment and philosophy.... You will find that which rings as true as ‘A MAN’S A MAN, FOR A’ THAT.’... Why should Humanity wait till its best friends have departed for ever, before paying them a fitting tribute. Let us while they are still with us, gather from the fields of thought the fairest flowers they have sown, and weave them in a chaplet—‘Let us wreath the living brow.’ All thinkers, liberal, progressive people, friends of ‘The New Thought,’ and those who love Humanity and worship truth, should purchase this book and place it in their libraries where it belongs, beside Burns, Byron and Shelley.”
The Rev. J. P. Hopps, in The Coming Day, writes:—“A truly astonishing book is ‘Songs of a Child and other Poems,’ by ‘Darling,’ (Lady Florence Dixie), published by The Leadenhall Press, London, in two parts, now issued in one volume. The writings of this wonderful child, the story of whose childhood is promised, suggest the presence and inspiration of a master spirit, fierce for freedom, daring in criticism, and splendid in spiritual adventure. The poems are full of dash and fire, whether treating of Nature and her wild delights or the mind-world with all its possibilities of rapture and depression, joy and anguish, trust and horror. But the wonder of it! The strenuous ‘Dramatic Tragedy’ of ‘Abel Avenged’ was written at fourteen and a half, and the militant ‘Sceptic’s Defence’ at sixteen—both crammed with the rankest imaginable heresies. Throughout the whole book there is hardly a line—perhaps not a line—which is mere composition. It is all powder and shot, and morning and evening stars.”
The Daily Chronicle, Quebec, says:—“The poems represent the lyrical activity of Lady Florence from the age of ten years to seventeen, and they are presented to the public in the form in which they first appeared, untouched and unrevised. Many of them are really so good, so musical, so original in choice of topic, so vigorous in execution, so rich in allusion, and often, so spirited, that one may well wonder how so youthful a poet could turn out such work, and such creations. In the compass of six hundred pages we have here the product of her pen for seven years,—only a selection from a mass of manuscripts.”
PUBLISHERS:
The Leadenhall Press, Ltd: 50, Leadenhall Street, London, E.C.
Charles Scribner’s Sons, 153–157, Fifth Avenue, New York.
READY. SECOND EDITION.
IJAIN;