"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 monument to him in his lifetime, and had gathered large sums for that purpose during his absence abroad, he at once put a stop to the project on his return home.--Am I wrong, dear Walter, in taking John Howard for one of my special moral heroes?"