The Wildfire Club - The Emma Hardinge Britten Archive

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ADDRESS TO THE WILDFIRES.
WHEN I glance over the names I have included in
the above ominous title, I feel as if you, 0 my phantom
people! children of my memory I cherished subjects of
many a sublime lesson, which your histories have read
me, deserve some apology for the strange classification
which I have made of you, beneath the cognomen of
"The Wildfire Club." Sweet faces, angelic in their
purity and patience, peep out from my very inkstand,
and fonn themselves into patterns all over my· paper, in
silent yet piteous protest against the demoniac name.
My noble Improvvisst@re, and fair Gabriella, faithful
Hannah of the Grange, and reverend old Tom Martin,
gentle Scottish Mary, and Margaret Infelix, can the
flitting night-fires of oorruption and unreality be gleaming
on those brows now radiant with light from the
land of never-setting suns? Let your own life histories
answer the question - and so let every question be
settled between humanity and its accusers. Say what
it will, the world may call names, and give titles, but
can never create character, or change life" histOl;es.
Life is too strong for the world's tongue, and the still
small voice of truth will make itself heard when the
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