No singer was ever more thoroughly identified with her own songs than Phoebe Cary. With but few exceptions, they distilled the deepest and sweetest music of her soul. They uttered, besides, the cheerful philosophy which life had taught her, and the sunny faith which lifted her out of the dark region of doubt an l ear, to rest forever in the loving kindness of her Heavenly Father. There were few things that she ever wrote for which she cared more personally than for her "Woman's Conclusions." The thought and the regret came to her sometimes, as they do to most of us, that in the utmost sense her life was incomplete unfulfilled. Often and long she pondered on this phase of existence; and her "Woman's Conclusions," copied below, were in reality her final conclusions concerning that problem of human fate which has baffled so many.

A WOMAN'S CONCLUSIONS.

I said, if I might go back again

To the very hour and place of my birth;
Might have my life whatever I chose,

And live it in any part of the earth;

Put perfect sunshine into my sky,

Banish the shadow of sorrow and doubt; Have all my happiness multiplied,

And all my suffering stricken out;

If I could have known, in the years now gone, The best that a woman comes to know; Could have had whatever will make her blest, Or whatever she thinks will make her so:

Have found the highest and purest bliss

That the bridal-wreath and ring inclose; And gained the one out of all the world, That my heart as well as my reason chose ;

And if this had been, and I stood to-night

By my children, lying asleep in their beds, And could count in my prayers, for a rosary, The shining row of their golden heads;

Yea! I said, if a miracle such as this

Could be wrought for me, at my bidding, still I would choose to have my past as it is, And to let my future come as it will!

I would not make the path I have trod

More pleasant or even, more straight or wide; Nor change my course the breadth of a hair, This way or that way, to either side.

My past is mine, and I take it all ;

Its weakness its folly, if you please;

Nay, even my sins, if you come to that,

May have been my helps, not hindrances!