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 UCSB LIBRAE
 
 Women Worth Emulating. 
 
 BY 
 
 CLARA L. BALFOUR. 
 
 ' Oh, let me emulate the good and wise ; 
 
 Gaze on their course, and mark their way, 
 Until my mind and soul, like theirs, may rise 
 Bathed in the light of Heavenly day !" 
 
 AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 
 
 I 5O NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 EMULATION is the spirit most desirable 
 to arouse in the young. What of per- 
 sonal progress and relative usefulness 
 has been effected by others, is always 
 a valuable and inspiriting study. That 
 which we are constrained to approve and admire we 
 are led to emulate, even where imitation may not 
 be possible. The sterling qualities which made a 
 character excellent, still more than the mental 
 powers which made it remarkable, convey lessons 
 for instruction and encouragement that all can 
 apply. 
 
 It is with this purpose that the following varied 
 selections of womanly worth and wisdom are pre-
 
 VI 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 sen ted to the young of their own sex, in the hope 
 that studious habits, intellectual pursuits, domestic 
 industry, and sound religious principles, may be 
 promoted and confirmed by such examples. 
 
 CLARA LUCAS BALFOUR. 
 
 Groyilon, 1877.
 
 CONTENTS, 
 
 CHAPTER p AGE 
 
 I. MRS. MARY SOJIERVILLE 1 
 
 II. CHARLOTTE ELLIOTT 21 
 
 III. CAROLINE HERSCHEL ...... 32 
 
 IV. ELIZABETH SJIITH ^7 
 
 V. AMELIA OVIE 72 
 
 VI. SARAH MARTIN AXU THE LAST DUCHKSS or GORDON 90 
 VII. JAMS AND A^KJi TAYLOR (Mas. GILBERT) . . 108
 
 'V/OJVIEN WOF(TH 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 MRS. M.ARY SOMERVILLE. 
 
 HE records of biography are not 
 always encouraging to all minds. 
 The talents seem so great, the 
 education and opportunities so ad- 
 vantageous, that ordinary readers 
 are apt to say, " Of what use is it 
 that I study such a life ? It is 
 quite beyond my range, both in 
 gifts and graces. Coming from the 
 contemplation of such excellence, 
 or such training, I am not roused 
 but depressed." 
 
 This is not by any means a feeling that should be 
 encouraged. There are mental heights we may not 
 ever scale, yet it is well to know of those who have,
 
 2 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 and in struggling upward we are strengthened even 
 by the effort. As the feeblest climber on a mountain- 
 side gets wider views at every step and breathes 
 a more exhilarating air, winning some increase of 
 vigour by the effort, so we dwellers on the more 
 level plain of humanity gain in mental perception 
 and moral force, when we contemplate the recorded 
 progress of those who have gained the lofty heights 
 of scientific investigation, benefited their age, and 
 done honour to womanhood. 
 
 One reflection may well reconcile us to the sur- 
 passing triumphs of some of whom we read with a 
 humbling sense of our own deficiencies, it is, that 
 however literary and scientific triumphs may as a 
 general thing, must be beyond our range and re- 
 moved from our imitation, there is a path which we 
 all can strive to tread, and where, when we are yet 
 " a great way off," one All-seeing Eye beholds us, 
 one Almighty Hand is stretched out to guide us. 
 Only let us ask from the depths of our heart for 
 help in treading the narrow path that leads to life 
 eternal, and it will surely be given ; for " He hath 
 promised who is faithful." 
 
 This consolatory, this ennobling thought enables 
 us to delight in all the varied manifestations of ex- 
 cellence with which the Almighty has benefited the 
 world. We praise Him for the beauty He has 
 spread around in the natural world, to lead our 
 thoughts to Him ; and still more should we praise 
 Him for the endowments He has given in the human
 
 MKS. MARY SOMEEVILLE. 
 
 woi-ld, to men and women who have lived and 
 laboured and taught among us. 
 
 To see God in all things, and to praise Him for 
 all His gifts to mankind, is the hallowed duty and 
 privilege of the young Christian. It is in this 
 grateful frame of mind that we should read of the 
 wise and good ; and if, amid much that is beyond 
 our imitation, either in the possession or application 
 of special faculties, yet there should be some sweet 
 lessons of love and duty that come home to the 
 ordinary pursuits and business of life, the interest 
 will be increased, and the teaching of the life more 
 valuable. 
 
 In the year 1783 there was a healthy, merry, 
 beautiful little girl of three years old (the daughter 
 of an ancient family) running about on the links at 
 Burntisland, on the coast of Fife, opposite Edinburgh. 
 Though well born, it was necessary that Mrs. Fair- 
 fax should live with great economy during the 
 absence of her husband, an officer in the navy, who 
 had nothing but his pay to depend on. In their 
 retirement, therefore, her little daughter had no 
 companions in her own rank of life but an elder 
 brother, who went early to the Edinburgh High 
 School; no luxurious indulgences, and certainly very 
 little attention from servants. She ran about at 
 her own will, and made her own amusements. The 
 child was not fond of dolls or toys, she found her 
 childish pleasures in gathering wild-flowers, wander- 
 ing on the sea-shore watching the birds, and the
 
 4 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 sea, and the clouds ; she was truly nature's play- 
 fellow, yet always active and willing to be useful. 
 Perhaps the first feeling roused in her infant mind 
 was love for the feathered race, and tenderness to 
 all dumb creatures, of whom she made companions. 
 Some banks of thistles and groundsel that inter- 
 sected the more cultivated ground at Mrs. Fairfax's 
 abode attracted multitudes of goldfinches and other 
 birds, and a deep love for them sprang up in the 
 child's heart, which remained with her to the end 
 of her long life. Happy the child who early learns 
 to love and protect the animal creation. It is the 
 beginning of good feelings, which soften the heart 
 and elevate the mind. 
 
 But little Mary Fairfax, while leading a seem- 
 ingly very careless childhood, soon began to be use- 
 ful in household matters. At seven or eight, she 
 pulled fruit for preserving, shelled peas, fed the 
 poultry, and made experiments in bottling goose- 
 berries. She was also taught by her good mother 
 to read the Bible, and to say her simple prayers, 
 morning and evening. Up to ten years of age there 
 could not have been any child among the ranks of 
 the gentry less instructed in all book knowledge. 
 But her physical education was excellent. Plenty 
 of exercise and plain food confirmed her health ; and 
 for moral culture, strict veracity and great kind- 
 ness were the wholesome foundations on which her 
 character was built. 
 
 Mrs. Somerville says in her own beautiful and
 
 MRS. MARY SOMERVILLE. O 
 
 simple biographic sketch,* " My father came home 
 from sea and was shocked to find me such a savage. 
 I had not yet been taught to write ; and although I 
 amused myself by reading ' The Arabian Nights,' 
 ' Eobinson Crusoe/ and ' The Pilgrim's Progress/ 
 I read very badly." Being compelled to read aloud 
 to her father was, she says, " a real penance" to 
 her; but when she was allowed to help him in his 
 favourite recreation of gardening, she found a 
 pleasure that compensated for her bookish toils. 
 At length Captain Fairfax said to his wife, " This 
 kind of life will never do ; Mary must at least know 
 how to write and keep accounts ; " and so she was 
 sent off to a boarding-school at Musselburgh. As 
 boarding-schools were then, this was a dreadful 
 change to the poor child. Her lithe little form, 
 straight as an arrow, which had been used to roam- 
 ing the mountain-side, was soon cased in stiff stay^, 
 with steel busk and collar to form her shape (deform 
 it, more likely); a dreary page of Johnson's Diction- 
 ary was given her to learn, and dull lessons followed 
 on first principles of writing, and rudiments of 
 grammar. She adds, " The teaching was ex- 
 tremely tedious and inefficient." 
 
 You young people of the present day, with your 
 capital books and excellent teachers, need to be 
 reminded of what education was, even for the upper 
 classes, in the days of your immediate ancestors. 
 
 * See introduction to the life of Mrs. Somerville, by her 
 daughter, p. 20.
 
 O WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 For this reason I have given you this brief sketch 
 of the early childhood of one who attained the very 
 first ranks among the scientific investigators and 
 benefactors of her age, an age, be it remembered, 
 eminent beyond all that have preceded it in scien- 
 tific discoveries and advancement. There have 
 been times when some were mental giants, simply 
 because their compeers were pigmies. That was not 
 the case in the times that produced the Herscheid, 
 James Watt, George Stephenson, Davy, Faraday, 
 and a host of others. \ 
 
 The Musselburgh schooldays lasted, fortunately, 
 only a year. At the age of eleven, the illness of 
 Mrs. Fairfax called her young daughter home ; and 
 it pained the child's grateful heart that her pro- 
 gress at school was so slight, that when a letter 
 came from a relative she could "neither compose 
 an answer nor spell the words ; " and she was re- 
 proached for having cost so much the school 
 terms had been high and learned so little. 
 
 Naturally shy and retiring, no one knew what 
 Was passing in the poor little girl's mind ; but she 
 well remembered in after-life how she mourned 
 over her ignorance, and how intently she desired 
 to attain knowledge. This was a salutary state of 
 feeling, especially when, as in her case, there was a 
 strong spirit of perseverance ; with her, indeed, it 
 was so strong that, in her own very humble esti- 
 mate of her powers, she always placed perseverance 
 as her greatest characteristic. And, my dear young
 
 MRS. MARY SOMERVILLB. 7 
 
 readers, it is a great truth that what we call 
 " Genius," and talk about vaguely as if it was a 
 something that exonerated its possessor from the 
 need of patient, careful plodding, is in reality the 
 power to take great pains ; to go over and over 
 again in some hard study, some toilsome work until 
 it ceases to be hard or toilsome. In mental as in 
 spiritual things, the Scripture maxim applies 
 "Patient continuance in well-doing;" that which 
 the word perseverance comprehends, and which is, 
 indeed, the true element of success in all things. 
 
 A child who felt her ignorance a sorrow, and 
 whose spirit was of the kind indicated, would soon 
 overcome her difficulties. She did not allow her 
 likes or dislikes to influence her; but with great 
 docility resolved to learn all she could. From her 
 active habits, needlework was not pleasant to her ; 
 and an aunt, in Scottish phrase, once said, " Maiy 
 does not shew (sew) any more than if she were a 
 man." Nevertheless, she set herself to overcome 
 her repugnance, and became skilful with her needle, 
 both in plain and fancy work. 
 
 A piano came to her home, and she began to 
 learn music, which was then very imperfectly 
 taught; but she rose in the morning and practised 
 so sedulously that she speedily gained a facility 
 which her family rejoiced in, for no accomplishment 
 in a country house is more likely to delight a home 
 circle. But, unhappily, the shyness of the young 
 pianist always prevented her in early days doing
 
 8 WOMEN -WOETH EMULATING. 
 
 justice to herself. Meanwhile, she learned to writ.o 
 a good hand, and made some, not great, progress in 
 arithmetic. The little French she had been taught 
 at school she added to by puzzling out and trans- 
 lating from French books, by herself, and so almost 
 insensibly acquired a reading knowledge of the 
 language. 
 
 One day, at the house of a friend, as she was look- 
 ing in a magazine of a fashionable kind for a pattern 
 of ladies' work, she came upon some letters oddly 
 arranged- 1 an algebraic problem. Asking the mean- 
 ing, she heard the word Algebra for the first time. 
 She thought about the word and took every oppor- 
 tunity that her great diffidence permitted to get 
 further explanation. She was told of the need of 
 arithmetic in the higher branches and mathematics. 
 She thought that some books in the home library 
 might help her, and so she pored over some books 
 of navigation ; and though she made very little pro- 
 gress in what she wanted to know, she learned 
 enough to open her mind to the value of solid 
 studies and to interest her in them. Meanwhile, from 
 some elementary books, probably her brother's, she 
 began to teach herself Latin, and with no help of 
 regular instruction learned enough to enable her to 
 read Cesar's Commentaries, and to feel an interest 
 in her reading. 
 
 Her habit of early rising was her great help, and 
 enabled her to pursue her studies unmolested. She 
 was very diligent in performing all that she was
 
 MRS. MARY SOMERVILI.E. 9 
 
 required to do in her daily domestic avocations, so 
 that no fault could be found with her for neglecting 
 anything required of her in the ordinary pursuits oj: 
 life. Thus the lonely little student went on with her 
 studies, until her progress was so considerable that 
 when on a visit to her uncle, the Rev. Dr. Somerville, 
 he found she had grounded herself both in Latin 
 and Greek. He gave her books, and what was 
 better, a word of encouragement, and she at length 
 possessed a Euclid, and advanced into mathematics. 
 
 The word of encouragement must have been in- 
 deed precious from its rarity. She was not only 
 laughed at but censured for the studies she applied 
 herself to; "going out of the female province" was 
 then the common phrase of disapproval. Poor girl ! 
 it was to her, as it has been to multitudes in the old 
 times of darkness and prejudice, a strange thing to 
 find that the world recognised ignorance as the 
 female province. 
 
 However, she persevered in all gentleness, yet 
 with ceaseless energy. No one could say that she 
 neglected any ladylike acquirements. Her skill 
 with the pencil was so marked that she was per- 
 mitted to have some good instruction, and she 
 studied under an eminent master in Scotland, 
 attaining such proficiency that her paintings and 
 drawings during her whole life were much admired, 
 and she never, even in extreme old age, entirely 
 laid aside that delightful art. Once in her youth, 
 on her skill being spoken of in the presence of a
 
 10 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 rather harsh old lady, the latter remarked, with 
 more frankness than politeness, " I am glad that 
 Miss Fairfax has any kind of talent that may enable 
 her to win her bread, for every one knows she will 
 not have a sixpence." 
 
 When she grew up and was introduced more fre- 
 quently into society, her father having greatly 
 distinguished himself in a naval victory, and gained 
 promotion, she was much admired, not only for 
 her personal attractions, which were a natural gift, 
 but for the charm of her manners, her sweet voice, 
 "and many graceful accomplishments. Of slight 
 figure, small stature, and delicately fair complexion, 
 she looked the embodiment of youth and feminine 
 refinement. 
 
 She was naturally much sought after, even 
 though her severe studies and varied attainments 
 were so little understood as to be regarded rather 
 as an eccentricity, merely to be treated with indul- 
 gence, as the strange caprice of a lovely girl left 
 much to herself, and allowed to employ her leisure 
 in her own peculiar way. 
 
 Mr. Samuel Greig, a connection of her mother's 
 family, and Commissioner of the Eussian Navy and 
 Russian Consul for Britain, paid a visit to Admiral 
 and Mrs. Fairfax, which ended in his proposing for 
 the hand of their daughter, and being accepted. 
 Miss Fairfax was then in her twenty -fourth year, 
 and the preparations for her marriage were made 
 on a scale of economy very unusual in her rank in
 
 MRS. MARY SOMERVILLE. 11 
 
 these extravagant days. She says, "Fortune I 
 had none, and my mother could only afford to give 
 me a very moderate trousseau, consisting chiefly of 
 fine personal and household linen. When I was 
 going away, she gave me twenty pounds to buy a 
 shawl or something warm for the winter. I knew 
 that Sir Arthur Shee, of the Academy of Paintings, 
 had painted a portrait of my father immediately 
 after the battle of Camperdown, and I went to see 
 it. The likeness pleased me ; the price was twenty 
 pounds ; so, instead of a warm shawl, I bought my 
 father's picture." 
 
 It is pleasant to read that soon after she had 
 warmed her heart by possessing this treasure, she 
 had a gift of furs presented to her by her husband's 
 brother. 
 
 In many sketches of this lady's life it was said 
 that her first husband directed her studies, and 
 aided her in what became her favourite pursuits. 
 This was very generally received and repeated as 
 a truth ; but in the work on her mother's life, by 
 Miss Martha Somerville, this is positively contra- 
 dicted. Mr. Greig is said not to have admired learn- 
 ing in women, and that he loved his charming wife 
 in spite of, and not for, her intellectual attainments. 
 The entire absence of all assumption, her manners 
 and conversation, disarmed the prejudice which then 
 was felt at any unusual mental gifts. 
 
 It is noticeable that in every period of her life 
 this lady was a learner. I think that is why she
 
 12 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING, 
 
 kept her faculties so bright through the long life 
 that was granted her. When a young bride in 
 London, she took the opportunity of obtaining 
 lessons from a French lady, and perfected herself in 
 that language. Afterwards she studied German 
 and Italian, and all this with the motive of reading 
 the works of scientific men in those languages. 
 
 Her married life lasted only three years, and 
 she was left a widow, with two little sons, at the 
 age of twenty-seven. Shattered in health by her 
 trials, she returned to Scotland to her parents' 
 house, and found consolation in the care of her 
 children, and after a time, in pursuing her studies. 
 As she was now independent, no one could prevent 
 her so employing herself in her retirement, and 
 for five years she continued her scientific re- 
 searches. There were none to praise that she did 
 not require, knowledge being to her its own re- 
 ward ; but there seem to have been many to 
 wonder and to blame. However, her kind uncle, 
 the Rev. Dr. Somerville, who had first shown his 
 sympathy with her tastes and pursuits, always stood 
 her friend ; and his son, a medical man, became her 
 second husband in 1812, to the great joy of most 
 of the family. 
 
 The following, showing the rudeness that pre- 
 judice sometimes engenders, is recorded in Mrs. 
 Somerville's biography : " I received a most imper- 
 tinent letter from one of his (Dr. Somerville's) 
 sisters, who was unmarried, and younger than I,
 
 MRS. MARY SOHERVILLE. 13 
 
 saying she hoped I ' would give up my foolish man- 
 ner of life and studies, and make a respectable 
 and useful wife to her brother.' " This strange 
 presumption, though it was freely forgiven, yet 
 created a coldness and reserve ever after. 
 
 It was a singular fact in the history of Mary 
 Fairfax that she was born at her Uncle Somerville' s 
 house, and Mrs. Fairfax being extremely ill, she 
 was taken by her aunt, who had an infant at the 
 time, and nursed by her, and was ever regarded as 
 a daughter of the house before she formed the 
 marriage which made her so. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Somerville, speaking of his son's 
 marriage, says, "Miss Fairfax had been born and 
 nursed at my house, her father being abroad at the 
 time on public service. She afterwards often re- 
 sided in my family, was occasionally my scholar, 
 and was looked upon by me and my wife as if she 
 had been one of our own children. I can truly say, 
 that next to them she was the object of our most 
 tender regard. Her ardent thirst for knowledge, 
 her assiduous application to study, and her eminent 
 proficiency in science and the fine arts, have pro- 
 cured her a celebrity rarely obtained by any of her 
 sex. But she never displays any pretensions to 
 superiority, while the affability of her temper 
 and the gentleness of her manner afford constant 
 sources of gratification to her friends." 
 
 The marriage proved in all respects happy. Dr. 
 Somerville entered with zeal into all his wife's
 
 14 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 studies ; indeed, he was himself devoted to scienti- 
 fic pursuits, both in his profession as a physician 
 and in his leisure hours. He was a tender and 
 generous step-father to the one surviving son of his 
 wife's first marriage. There were three daughters 
 of the second marriage Margaret, Martha, and 
 Mary. The first, to her parents' great grief, died in 
 early life ; the two latter survived to be the tender 
 ministers to their mother's declining years, her 
 literary helpers, and biographers. 
 
 The life of Mrs. Somerville, from the time of her 
 second marriage, is but a happy record of her scientific 
 achievements ; and the publication of her valuable 
 books. One trouble came a loss of fortune, which 
 compelled them to remove from their house in 
 Hanover Square, and made Dr. Somerville accept 
 the post of physician to Chelsea Hospital, in 1827, 
 and take up his abode there. The residence never 
 suited Mrs. Somerville's health, but she employed 
 herself with characteristic perseverance and cheer- 
 fulness. 
 
 In 1831, she brought out her " Mechanism of 
 the Heavens." This was followed by her chief 
 work, " The Connection of the Physical Sciences," 
 which ran through several editions, and became a 
 class book at our universities. 
 
 I cannot refrain from mentioning that I met with 
 that book in a very remote region. At the little 
 town of St. Just, at the extreme west point of 
 England, near Cape Cornwall, a Literary and Me-
 
 MRS. MARY SOMERVILLE. 15 
 
 chanics' Institution was built, which I visited in 
 1850. Being shown into the library, I took up a 
 book that was lying on the table, and found it was 
 " The Connection of the Physical Sciences/' and its 
 worn binding and well-thumbed pages bore evi- 
 dence of its having been largely circulated amongst 
 working-class readers. I thought it a great tribute 
 to the value of the book, and equally an evidence 
 of the intelligence of Cornish working-men. 
 
 After some years, these first works were followed 
 by her " Physical Geography ; " and when old age 
 had settled down upon her, she wrote "Molecular 
 and Microscopic Science." Honours came from 
 foreign lands, as well as from learned Societies at 
 home. She was elected Honorary Member of the 
 Royal Geographical Society, the same year that 
 a similar honour was conferred on Miss Caroline 
 Herschel, the sister and aunt of the two eminent 
 astronomers Sir William and Sir John Herschel 
 herself no less eminent. The Koyal Theresa Aca- 
 demy of Science elected Mrs. Somerville a member ; 
 and Geographical Societies, both in Britain and on 
 the Continent, enrolled her honoured name in their 
 lists. 
 
 .Her correspondence was very large with all the 
 eminent literati of her time, and she enjoyed the 
 friendship of the distinguished men and women who 
 made the intellectual society of the age. 
 
 A pension of two hundred pounds a year for her 
 life was well bestowed during Sir Robert Peel's time
 
 16 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 of office; and, her health requiring change, she 
 went to the Continent with Dr. Somerville and 
 their daughters. After making many excursions 
 to different cities and kingdoms, the family finally 
 settled down in Italy. At Rome, Florence, Naples, 
 and Geneva, Mrs. Somerville in turn resided, al- 
 ways actively employed in every good work the 
 anti-slavei-y question, the freedom and unification 
 of Italy, the abolition of the horrors of vivisection, 
 as practised by foreign surgeons under the specious 
 name of scientific investigation, and, alas ! coming 
 into our own Schools of Anatomy. Ever this detest- 
 able cruelty found in her a stern opponent. Education 
 for the poor, and especially a more liberal educa- 
 tion for women, called all her energies into exercise 
 long after she had reached her eightieth year. 
 
 Her beloved husband, full of years and honours, 
 passed away some time before her own death ; but 
 though bereaved and stricken, she was patient and 
 resigned. Her daughters were not only her chil- 
 dren, but her companions and friends one in heart 
 and mind. So years passed on, not withering, but 
 ripening all the hallowed graces of the mind and 
 soul in Mary Somerville. Though she lived to be 
 ninety-two, it can scarcely be said that she ever 
 lost her youth, her intelligence remaining so clear, 
 her spirits so fresh, her sympathies so active* Able 
 to read without spectacles, to write to and converse 
 with her friends; a slight deafness and a little 
 tremor of the hands alone told that the vital
 
 MRS. MAEY SOMKUV1LLB. 17 
 
 energy was flagging, while her soul was light in 
 the Lord. On principle, she said but little on her 
 religious opinions, and never entered into contro- 
 versy ; but she was deeply and truly devout. One 
 of her last written testimonies was : " Deeply sensi- 
 ble of my own unworthiness, and profoundly grate- 
 ful for the innumerable blessings I have received, I 
 trust in the infinite mercy of my Almighty Creator. 
 I have every reason to be thankful that my intellect 
 is still unimpaired ; and although my strength is 
 weakness, my daughters support my tottering steps, 
 and by incessant care and help make the infirmities 
 of age so light to me that I am perfectly happy." 
 
 Surely Goldsmith's beautiful simile may be ap- 
 plied to this venerable lady, 
 
 "As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form, 
 Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm; 
 Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread, 
 Eternal sunshine settles on its head." 
 
 Without pain or illness, she placidly sank and 
 died in her sleep, on the morning of November 
 29th, 1872. She was buried in the English Campo 
 Santo at Naples. The full history of a life so long 
 and so active would be the history of an age. She 
 had known all the troubles, wars, and political con- 
 tests of the latter part of the reign of George III. ; 
 the Regency ; the corrupt reign of George IV. ; the 
 better times of King William IY. and his amiable 
 Queen Adelaide, who honoured Mrs. Somerville 
 with kindly appreciation; the accession of Queen 
 
 c
 
 18 
 
 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 Victoria, our beloved sovereign, whose studious 
 youth had been familiarised with Mrs. Somerville's 
 writings, and whose mental attainments, we know, 
 make her interested in promoting the knowledge 
 of science and literature among all her subjects. 
 Such an indefatigable life, such a genial old age, 
 and such a peaceful death, are the lot of few ; but 
 we who can but look with admiration on such 
 talents may emulate and imitate her virtues.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 M.ISS CHARLOTTE ELLIOTT. 
 STRENGTH IN WEAKNESS. 
 
 
 
 " Here will I watch and wait, and ' wish for day.' 
 Rock of Ages ! at Thy foot I stay ! 
 Let not the dashing waves unclasp my hold ! 
 Let mercy's arms my trembling form enfold ; 
 And place me where Thy ' hidden ones ' repose, 
 Till the new earth and heaven their charms disclose." 
 
 CHABLOTTE ELLIOTT. 
 
 E laws of health are now so much 
 better understood than they formerly 
 were, and all sensible women and girls 
 attend so much more to physical train- 
 ing and open-air exercise, that extreme 
 delicacy of constitution is no longer con- 
 sidered the inevitable inheritance of the 
 female half of the human race. A complex and 
 highly sensitive organization, it is admitted, re- 
 quires extra care both in understanding and obey- 
 ing wholesome rules of diet, dress, occupation, and 
 relaxation. The three cheap physicians water.
 
 22 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 air, and exercise are wisely held in high repute, 
 and employed daily by all who wish to attain or 
 preserve that best of all our heavenly Father's 
 earthly blessings " a sound mind in a sound 
 body." 
 
 Still it is a sad fact that inherited maladies or 
 constitutional defects do fall to the lot of very 
 many of the female sex. The common phrase, which 
 has passed into a motto " The suffering sex " 
 may have been, and I think was, intended to apply 
 to the sympathetic mind of woman quite as much 
 as to the body ; though it is more generally under- 
 stood as applying to the latter. It still describes 
 the physical circumstances of great numbers. Life 
 on hard conditions is their lot ; and as no chastening 
 in immediate endurance is otherwise than grievous, 
 these dear invalids have the tenderest claims on 
 our ready help and affection. If they are precluded 
 from all activity of either mind or body, the greater 
 responsibility is laid on those around them who 
 possess the blessing of health to cheer and lighten 
 as much as possible the burden of their affliction. 
 This is simply a Christian duty ; but like all duties, 
 the more diligently and cheerfully it is performed 
 the sooner it becomes a delight, and brings into 
 the pitying, loving heart of the helpers the blessing 
 of Him who " bore our griefs and carried our sor- 
 rows." 
 
 It is however a remarkable and interesting fact, 
 that from the chambers of sickness and the couch
 
 MISS CHARLOTTE ELLIOTT. 23 
 
 of suffering have come not only some of the most 
 beautiful examples of cheerful resignation, but of 
 active mental effort. Lessons have been taught so 
 sweet, unselfish, and holy, that they have strength- 
 ened the healthy and braced the strong in their 
 contest with the inevitable cares and trials of life. 
 
 It was while the poet, Miss Elizabeth Barrett 
 (afterwards Mrs. Browning), was an invalid, carried 
 from bed to sofa for eight years, that she wrote some 
 of the most spiritual of her poems and sonnets. The 
 experiences in the seclusion of her sick room aided 
 the development of her mind and the strengthening 
 of her religious principles. Not books merely, 
 though she was a great scholar, but solitude, suffer- 
 ing, and self-communion matured that fine mind 
 and sublimated that sweet spirit, until she might 
 be said in her sick chamber to have dwelt with 
 God. 
 
 A yet more memorable instance of a long life 
 of suffering consecrated to the highest uses, was 
 shown in the case of the sweetest of our modern 
 hymn-writers, Miss Charlotte Elliott. Her life is a 
 true poem in its harmony of thought and action, of 
 example and precept. No startling incidents, no 
 elaborate details, are presented in the very brief 
 (too brief) memoir which a surviving sister^gave 
 of her life prefixed to a recent edition of her poems ; 
 but the account is all the more instructive, because 
 God led His faithful servant along the quiet, 
 shadowed path, unseen by the world a path soon
 
 24 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 apparently to lead by painful footsteps into the dark 
 valley. But the weary way was winding and very 
 long, and the end was slowly gained, which was a 
 blessing to many. The overshadowing wings that 
 were spread as a shelter for the invalid mercifully 
 concealed the lengthening road, while soft whisper- 
 ings of angel voices echoed through the sufferer's 
 soul, and the peace that passeth understanding 
 filled her heart. 
 
 Thus a life of more than eighty-two years was 
 permitted to one who had from early youth such 
 feeble health, that death was often thought to be im- 
 pending". Surely in that long sojourn in the outer 
 vestibule of heaven, she must have caught a refrain 
 of its songs and a rich foretaste of its joys. 
 
 Miss Charlotte Elliott was born March 18th, 
 1789, the third daughter of a family that were, at 
 the end of the last century, the centre of a circle 
 known and esteemed for evangelical principles and 
 deep piety. Charles Elliott, Esq., of Clapham and 
 Brighton, was her father ; and Mrs. Elliott, her 
 mother, was a daughter of the Rev. Henry Venn, 
 the pious vicar of Huddersfield from 1760 to 1770. 
 The Rev. John Venn, Rector of Clapham, was her 
 uncle. Indeed, the members of the families of the 
 Venns and Elliotts were well known throughout the 
 kingdom as leaders of that evangelistic movement 
 which sought, during the last thirty years of the 
 past century, to revive and cherish pure, simple 
 gospel truth in the teachings of the Church of
 
 MISS CHARLOTTE ELLIOTT. 25 
 
 England, and to commend religion to the people as 
 a matter of the heart and conscience, not of forms 
 and ceremonies, but of inward conviction. 
 
 Born into such a circle, of course the education of 
 the gifted child Charlotte was carefully attended to, 
 especially in those matters which implant principles 
 and form character. Her literary studies were sub- 
 ject to interruption from her ill health every winter. 
 In the summer months, she rallied, and was able, as 
 childhood merged into youth, to visit friends of the 
 family; and the sweetness of her disposition, accom- 
 panied and embellished by the charm of a mind rich 
 in natural gifts, made her very precious to all who 
 knew her. 
 
 Early in life her conversation was greatly prized 
 by the limited and select circle who were favoured 
 to enjoy it. Fond of music and poetry, with fine 
 taste, a good memory and active imagination, she 
 must have been a most delightful companion, par- 
 ticularly as she had been surrounded from her 
 earliest years by a home circle whose gifts and 
 attainments made them sought and prized wherever 
 great talents, consecrated by religion to the highest 
 uses, commanded attention or won regard. 
 
 If health was denied, yet all the compensations 
 that could be granted in loving companionship and 
 intellectual pursuits were mercifully granted. Still, 
 those only know, to whom the monotony of the sick 
 room is often appointed, how heavy the burden is, 
 and how it presses on those who have to bear
 
 26 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 it. Each must bear his own burden, is the earthly 
 sentence on the sick and suffering. Happy those 
 who can cast their care on the Saviour, and realize 
 that He careth for them. 
 
 This sweet experience was not gained without 
 an effort, even by so spiritual a nature as Charlotte 
 Elliott. Let none of my young readers think that 
 the careful training of pious parents, the possession 
 of a gentle temper and kindly natural disposition, 
 will be enough in themselves, to secure comfort 
 during the tedious, wearing trials of oft-recurring 
 or long-continued sickness. It needs the special 
 grace of a lively faith in all being ordered by a 
 heavenly Father's love, before the blessing is fully 
 realized that He is near to sustain and comfort, and 
 that in the darkest hour His voice sounds in the 
 depths of the spirit, " It is I ; be not afraid." This 
 triumph over bodily affliction is only gained if, and 
 when, it has been earnestly sought ; and so we read 
 that there was a time in Charlotte Elliott's early 
 youth when she was not in the full enjoyment of that 
 hope through believing which alone brings peace. 
 
 Her opportunities of meeting highly-intellectual 
 people in circles of fashionable life, though often 
 restricted by delicacy of constitution, were yet 
 frequent enough to exercise a great fascination over 
 her mind, and might have led her to prize worldly 
 amusements and intellectual triumphs as a chief 
 good ; in which case there must inevitably have 
 followed a bitter sense of hardship and loss, when
 
 MISS CHARLOTTE ELLIOTT. 2.1 
 
 she was laid aside and deprived of such amusements 
 and enjoyments. But she was mercifully led to a 
 higher life. With pathetic truth does she say, 
 " He knows, and He alone, what it is, day after day, 
 hour after hour, to fight against bodily feelings of 
 almost overpowering weakness and languor and 
 exhaustion ; to resolve, as He enables me to do, not 
 to yield to the slothfulness, the self-indulgence, the 
 depression, the irritability such a body inclines me 
 to indulge ; but to rise every morning determined 
 on taking this for my motto : ' If any man will 
 come after me, let him deny himself, and take up 
 his cross daily, and follow me/ '' 
 
 It was this spirit of patient endurance and hal- 
 lowed resignation that aided her to give to all who 
 are passing through deep waters, that perfect hymn, 
 
 " Thy will be done." 
 
 In the year 1821, during a season of great suffer- 
 ing, she became deeply conscious of sin a great 
 mental conflict distressed her. Ah, my dear young 
 reader ! we must know ourselves to be sinners, be- 
 fore we can turn with full purpose of heart to Christ 
 as a Saviour. The sin-sick soul must know and 
 feel that it is sick, before it hastens to seek the Great 
 Physician. This part of Miss Elliott's experience 
 is of great use to us far less advanced Christians. 
 It was this deep need which developed in her mind 
 those lovely, yearning, submissive thoughts which 
 are expressed in her beautiful hymns.
 
 28 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 Dr. Csesar Malan, of Geneva, on the 9th of May, 
 1 822, came to her aid like a heavenly messenger ; as, 
 indeed, all are who bring light, truth, and peace to 
 our souls. His conversation gave her new views of 
 the grace of God in Christ Jesus. That day she 
 kept as the birthday of her soul a spiritual anniver- 
 sary ever cherished, as also was the friendship and 
 correspondence with Dr. Malan for a period of forty 
 years. 
 
 In the year 1823, many sad bereavements came, 
 especially the death of a beloved sister; and it was 
 resolved by the family to accept an invitation to the 
 Continent, and try an entire change of scene : 
 doubtless with benefit to mind and spirit, but 
 scarcely with any permanent improvement of health 
 to the invalid. 
 
 After an interval of some years, in 1834, she 
 formed an acquaintance with Miss Harriet Kiernan, 
 of Dublin, a lady of great mental and spiritual 
 attainments, who came to England for medical 
 advice ; which, to the sincere regret of Miss Elliott, 
 proved unavailing, for in less than a year she died 
 of consumption. Intercourse with this like-minded 
 Christian friend led to Miss Charlotte Elliott under- 
 taking the editorship of a little annual volume, 
 " The Christian Remembrancer," which for twenty- 
 five years she carefully prepared and enriched 
 with original contributions, and also with valuable 
 selections. 
 
 The profits of this work, which attained a large
 
 MISS CHARLOTTE ELLIOTT. 29 
 
 circulation, and of her other writings, were employed 
 in aiding the funds of Christian institutions, such 
 as the Bible Society, and kindred plans of spreading 
 the gospel ; while her private benevolence was always 
 active to the utmost extent of, and, as some would 
 think, beyond her means. 
 
 It was in 1835 that she wrote the exquisite hymn 
 so justly dear to every humble believer : 
 
 " Just as I am, without one plea." 
 
 This first appeared, among several others, in a 
 collection of poems intended chiefly for the sick room. 
 With characteristic diffidence, the writer shrunk 
 from being known ; and it must have been a hal- 
 lowed joy to her to find that she was the honoured 
 instrument of impressing, arousing, and comforting 
 many. Her hymn was copied out by several of her 
 friends and correspondents, and sent to her by 
 many who did not know that she was the author. 
 It was speedily translated into French, Italian, 
 German, and may certainly be considered a priceless 
 gem in our rich treasury of devotional lyrics. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to say that Miss Elliott was 
 a most constant and devout Bible student. Passages 
 of Holy Wr|t form so often the refrain of her 
 poems, that it is easy to see that her mind was 
 constantly filled from the pure fount of Bible 
 truth. 
 
 A little passage that she wrote in her own private 
 Bible contains a valuable lesson to all :
 
 30 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 " D!g deep into this precious mine, 
 Toil, and its richest ore is thine : 
 Search, and the Lord will lend His aid 
 To strew its wealth from its mystic shade : 
 Strive, and His Spirit will give the light 
 To work in the heavenly mine aright. 
 Pray without ceasing, and in Him confide, 
 Into all truth His light will guide." 
 
 When weakness prevented her attending public 
 worship, she found a sanctuary in God's word : " My 
 Bible is my church," she said. " It is always open, 
 and there is my High Priest, ever waiting to receive 
 me. There I have my confessional, my thanksgiving, 
 my psalms of praise, a field of promises, and a con- 
 gregation of whom the world is not worthy pro- 
 phets, apostles, martyrs, confessors ; in short, all I 
 can want I there find." What a blessing it is that 
 this rich treasure, so full of blessing to her, is ours 
 also, that the humblest mind may receive a ray from 
 that Divine source of all light and life. Her sister 
 says hers was, to a great extent, " a hidden life,"- 
 hid with Christ in God, we may say. But as the 
 unseen violet is known and tracked by its fragrance, 
 so the breathings of her soul have come to us in her 
 poems, and help to waft our thoughts heavenward. 
 We feel that it was by prayer she lived and sang 
 her sweet strains. We hardly need to be told that 
 she had special seasons of spiritual communion 
 with, and prayer for, absent friends ; special times 
 for commending works of faith and labours of love 
 to Him who alone can send the prospering blessing,
 
 MISS CHARLOTTE ELLIOTT. 31 
 
 and who has revealed Himself as the hearer and 
 answerer of prayer. 
 
 Thus passed what, to her surprise, as to that of 
 her many friends, was permitted to be a long life. 
 Many bereavements that of her beloved brother, 
 Kev. Henry Venn Elliott, and others came to test, 
 but never to shake her faith. Many furnace fires of 
 suffering refined the pure ore of Christian principle 
 from the dross of earthliness. Many changes to dis- 
 tant lands and to various parts of her own country 
 were dutifully tried, in search of what was never 
 long possessed alleviation of bodily suffering; yet, 
 amid all, her soul enjoyed a sweet serenity, and she 
 was permitted to reach the ripe age of eighty-two 
 years. On the 22nd of September, 1871, she said, 
 in reply to one who quoted the words, " Let not 
 your heart be troubled," a sweet smile beaming on 
 her brow : " But my heart is not troubled " ; and 
 then she added, " My mind is full of the Bible/* On 
 the evening of that day, at ten o'clock, she sank 
 to sleep so sweetly that those around could not 
 tell the minute when the earthly repose ended and 
 the heavenly rest was won. 
 
 " SO HE GIVETH HlS BELOVED SLEEP."
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Liss CAROLINE WERSCHEL. 
 (SOME SISTERS OF MEMORABLE MEN.) 
 
 HERE is a hallowed charm in the rela- 
 tionship of sister, when its duties are 
 tenderly felt and faithfully fulfilled. It 
 has often been remarked that young 
 men, who have grown up surrounded 
 by a group of amiable sisters, or 
 even in companionship with only one 
 who possessed a loving heart and gentle mind, 
 are easily known by their superior refinement 
 and their deference to and respect for women. 
 " I knew he must have had nice sisters," is a fre- 
 quent comment, when the speech and deportment of 
 a young man has led to an inquiry as to his family 
 connections. 
 
 I do not say that many a young man has not 
 attained mild, considerate, kindly manners who has 
 never had a sister ; but I hold that one of the most
 
 STUDY AND WOBK.
 
 MISS CAROLINE HERSCHEL. 35 
 
 refining educational influences is possessed in fami- 
 lies where the affection and innocent gaiety of the 
 girls tempers the hardihood and roughness of the 
 boys. The two sexes growing up together in the 
 household do each other good. The sisters gain 
 in frankness, courage, activity, and it may be, in 
 solid intelligence, if the boys are conscientious; 
 while the brothers become more considerate in act 
 and speech, purer and gentler in thought and 
 word and action. 
 
 The sweet, strong bond which nature knits at 
 birth between the children of the same parents, 
 nursed at the same bosom, fondled on the same lap, 
 kneeling at the same household altar, ought to be 
 able to defy the changes and vicissitudes of life, 
 although these affect this relationship more than 
 any other. Sons go forth to battle with the world, 
 daughters marry and enter upon other and nearer 
 ties and responsibilities ; still the heart cannot be 
 quite right which does not always retain and 
 respond to the first early claims the associations 
 identified with childhood. Sad is it when the cares 
 of the world obliterate the tender memories of early 
 youth, or the pride of life dries up or diverts the 
 fountains of affection which welled forth in the 
 home of childhood. 
 
 To some true hearts this kindred tie, when it has 
 been stretched across wide oceans to far distant 
 lands, has bravely borne the strain, and grown the 
 tighter by the firm clasp with which at each end
 
 36 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 it has been held. Multitudes might and do echo 
 the kindly words of Goldsmith 
 
 " Where'er I roam, whate'er new realms I see, 
 My heart, untravelled, fondly turns to thee ; 
 Still to my brother turns, with ceaseless pain, 
 And drags at each remove a lengthening chain." 
 
 In literary biography there are many memorable 
 sisters of distinguished men. The poet Words- 
 worth testified as to the . softening influence his 
 sister, Miss Deborah Wordsworth, exerted on his 
 mind and manners, and the benefit he derived from 
 her wise criticisms. From his own experience of 
 a relationship that never was interrupted by any 
 newer ties on Miss Wordsworth's part, for she 
 lived with him until her death, and as long as 
 health permitted, devoted herself to his family, 
 from tender reverence for this life-long bond of 
 love, so precious in his own case, the poet coiild 
 deeply appreciate its value ; and he said of the 
 quaint essayist and his sister Charles and Mary 
 Lamb 
 
 " Thus, 'mid a shifting world, 
 Did they together testify of time 
 And seasons' difference a double tree, 
 With two collateral stems sprung from one root." 
 
 In humble life there have been most worthy in- 
 stances of sisterly affection, by which the welfare 
 of brothers has been so promoted as to aid them in 
 their upward struggle to a higher position of life.
 
 MISS CAROLINE HERSCHEL. 37 
 
 Catherine Hutton is a memorable case in point. 
 William Hutton, the successful bookseller, and 
 valued historian of the important town of Birming- 
 ham, which now shines like a star in the midst of 
 England, passed through as sad an experience of 
 suffering and hardship in childhood as was ever 
 lived through and triumphed over. 
 
 At seven years of age the poor child was put to 
 work in a silk-mill, and being too short for his 
 hands to reach the machinery, he was mounted on 
 high pattens to pursue his toil. Seven years of 
 this slavery passed, and then, the boy being out of 
 his time, trade was bad, and he could not get em- 
 ployment. He was again bound for seven years to 
 the stocking weaving, a relative being his master, 
 or rather his tyrant. Taunts and blows were his 
 portion in his second apprenticeship. His mother 
 was dead, and his father drank; one only heart 
 yearned to the motherless boy, and that was his 
 sister Catherine's. The poor boy made an effort to 
 escape from his tyrant, by running away when he 
 was seventeen years of age ; and his narrative of 
 his journey, the loss of his bundle of clothes con- 
 taining all he had in the world, his sleeping on 
 a butcher's block at night, and his subsequent 
 famished wanderings, is as affecting as any record of 
 American slavery. His brutal uncle was, however, 
 brought to own the value of the lad's services, and 
 promising to treat him better, William returned and 
 served out his time.
 
 38 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 In his few, very few, intervals of leisure, and by 
 subtracting from the hours of sleep in summer morn- 
 ings, William HuttOn managed to cultivate his mind; 
 and growing fond of books, he also began a little 
 traffic in them by buying a book for his own read- 
 ing and then selling it to obtain another. By tact 
 and shrewdness he managed to make a profit out of 
 his little trading. It was well that he did; for on 
 his being oat of his time as a stockinger though 
 he worked two years as a journeyman trade 
 was bad and employment uncertain, and so he 
 bought himself an old bookbinder's press, and 
 taught himself enough of the art of bookbinding to 
 renovate the shabby and tattered books which alone 
 he had the means to purchase. He took a little 
 shop, and his sister Catherine came to live with 
 him ; and with tender gratitude he recounts : 
 
 " I set off at five every Saturday morning, carried 
 a burden of from three pounds weight to thirty, 
 opened shop (or stall) at ten, starved in it all day 
 upon bread and cheese and half a pint of ale, took 
 from one to six shillings, shut up at four, and by 
 trudging through the solitary night and deep roads 
 five hours, 'I arrived at Nottingham by nine, where I 
 always found a mess of milk porridge by the fire 
 prepared by my invaluable sister." 
 
 We can picture the welcome and the smile that 
 greeted the weary, foot-sore man, as he entered his 
 dwelling, and cannot doubt that to his sister's care 
 and kindness it was due that his health and life
 
 MISS CAROLINE HERSCHEL. 39 
 
 were preserved in his hard wrestle with fortune. 
 The tenderness and domestic order of that kind 
 sister kept him from resorting to the public-house, 
 preserved both his health and morals ; and he knew 
 and owned in after-life, when he became a thriving 
 and a prosperous man, that his sister had been a 
 true helper, without whose aid he would probably 
 have succumbed to the hardship of his lot. 
 
 William Hutton was not merely a prosperous 
 man, he was good in all the various relationships of 
 life, and he lived to extreme old age. 
 
 On the publication of his " History of Birming- 
 ham," which had a very large circulation, he was 
 elected a Fellow of the Antiquarian Society of 
 Edinburgh. Wealth and honours followed ; but in 
 wealth as in poverty he retained a humble, kindly, 
 grateful nature, and always delighted to own his 
 great obligations to his sister Catherine. 
 
 Certainly the most memorable case in modern bio- 
 graphy of sisterly sympathy and help is furnished 
 in the life of Miss Caroline Herschel, of whom inci- 
 dental mention has been made in the sketch of Mrs. 
 Mary Somerville. The splendour of the name o'f 
 Herschel, and the scientific distinctions attained 
 by Sir William, and Sir John his son, might throw 
 into complete shade the early history of the family, 
 and thus prevent us from knowing and being in- 
 structed by a very impressive and beautiful domestic 
 history, only that the recent publication of the life
 
 40 WOMEN WOKTH EMULATING. 
 
 of Miss Herschel * throws the quiet light of home 
 on the narrative of the scientific progress of her 
 distinguished relatives. 
 
 In the garrison school at Hanover, from 1739 to 
 1755, there were a group of pupils ranging from the 
 age of two to fourteen, the elder boys of whom were 
 noted for their talents, particularly in music. Jacob, 
 William, and John had all been well instructed at 
 home in that art by their father, a musician in the 
 Guards' band. But this good father's plans for the 
 education of his family were much hindered by his 
 ill health. He was a martyr to asthma and rheu- 
 matism, owing to the hardships he had endured in 
 war-time with the army. But his children were a 
 great compensation. The eldest, Sophia, went away 
 to reside with a family, where she married early a 
 musician named Griesbach ; and the three elder boys 
 soon obtained employment Jacob as an organist, 
 and William and John in the band. Their bright- 
 ness rather threw into the shade the fifth child of 
 the family, Caroline, a little, quiet, plain-looking 
 girl. By her own account, she was not much 
 cared for in the busy household, some of whom the 
 eldest sister and brother were certainly selfish and 
 exacting. But there was one brother, William, to 
 whom the little Caroline always firmly attached her- 
 self with all the strength of a loving heart, sadly 
 repressed in its demonstrations. William had always 
 
 * " Memoir and Correspondence of Caroline Herschel." 
 By Mrs. John Herschel.
 
 MISS CAROLINE HERSCHEL. 41 
 
 a kind look and word for his little sister, which 
 fell on her heart like dew upon a drooping flower. 
 
 There was a younger child than Caroline, who 
 completed the family group, Alexander, a fine boy, 
 the care of whom fell to the lot of the sister five 
 years his elder. 
 
 Never was there a harder worked child than 
 Caroline Herschel. She had to do the actual drud- 
 gery of the house, and in her life calls herself 
 " Cinderella," running errands, nursing the baby, 
 washing up after meals, mending the clothes, filled 
 all the time that she was not at the garrison school, 
 which of course, with all the enforced punctuality 
 of a German child, she attended. It is affecting to 
 read such statements as the following, of her early 
 recollections. The incident occurred before she 
 was seven years of age, and her father was returning 
 home after an absence : 
 
 " My mother being very busy preparing dinner, 
 had suffered me to go alone to the parade to meet 
 my father, but I could not find him anywhere, nor 
 anybody whom I knew; so at last, when nearly frozen 
 to death, I came home and found them all at table. 
 My dear brother William threw down his knife and 
 fork, and ran to welcome me, and crouched down to 
 me, which made me forget all my grievances. The 
 rest were so happy at seeing one another again, that 
 my absence had never been perceived." 
 
 In another place she says, " I was mostly, when 
 not in school, sent with Alexander to play on the
 
 42 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 walls, or with the neighbours' children, in which I 
 seldom could join ; and often stood freezing on the 
 shore to see my brother skating till he chose to go 
 home. In short, there was no one who cared any- 
 thing about me." 
 
 A sad testimony. This doubtless had the effect 
 of concentrating her affection on the one brother 
 who did care something for her. Her father, too, 
 she always remembered with great tenderness, for 
 he perceived some talent in the child, and taught 
 her a little music and singing, not with his 
 wife's concurrence. Mrs. Herschel was a toil-worn 
 mother, wearied with her necessary household tasks. 
 She saw that her eldest daughter's education had 
 not made her helpful, but the reverse; that her 
 elder sons' talents were likely to cause them, as they 
 did, to leave their native land in search of a wider 
 sphere ; therefore she was resolute to prevent little 
 Caroline having any but the humblest and plainest 
 instruction what the school laws prescribed, and 
 no more. 
 
 Thus there was the greatest impediment to Caro- 
 line's mental progress which could possibly exist. 
 A child a daughter especially is so influenced by 
 a mother's feelings and prejudices, that it is one of 
 the marvels which real life supplies, more strangely 
 than fiction can do, that this little hard-worked 
 household drudge should have ever emerged from 
 the gloom of her early condition. This it is which 
 makes her life so valuable ; what she was, quite as
 
 MISS CAROLINE HERSCHEL. 43 
 
 much as what she did, is a rich legacy of instruc- 
 tion to all. This little girl, who was to become the 
 greatest female astronomer of the age, was a capital 
 knitter, and records that she knitted a pair of 
 stockings for one of her brothers, which when done 
 were as long as she was high. 
 
 The departure of the two eldest brothers for 
 England on a musical tour was the next important 
 event in the family. This was followed by the 
 death of the good father, to the deep grief of his 
 wife and children, to whom he left "little more 
 than the heritage of a good example, unblemished 
 character, and those musical talents, which he had 
 so carefully educated, and by which he probably 
 hoped the more gifted of his sons would attain to 
 eminence." 
 
 The little Caroline was thrown, as she says, into 
 a " state of stupefaction " for many weeks after this 
 bereavement. All hope of intellectual improvement 
 seemed now closed to her. She went for a short 
 time to learn millinery and dressmaking, but this 
 was not continued long. She returned to her 
 household duties, and the toiling mother was con- 
 stant at her spinning-wheel, while the sons were 
 gaining great reputation in England, particularly 
 at Bath, where William was mostly resident. 
 
 It should be noted that from William's earliest 
 years he had shown not merely musical talent, but 
 a great mechanical and inventive faculty. His 
 mind had a wide range, and he could study Ian-
 
 44 WOMEN WOETH EMULATING. 
 
 guages and mathematics, and yet train his hands 
 to skill in mechanics. He was never idle, but 
 always acquiring ; indeed, idleness was unknown 
 in the family, though some were more diligent and 
 far more unselfish than others. 
 
 Thus some years passed on, until Caroline was 
 twenty- two, when there came a letter from her 
 brother William, proposing that she should join 
 him at Bath. He remembered her voice and sing- 
 ing, and thought by his instruction he might make 
 her useful for his winter concerts at Bath. She 
 was to return to Hanover, if on trial she did not suc- 
 ceed. Her eldest brother Jacob, who, as she said, 
 had never heard her voice except in speaking, turned 
 the whole scheme into ridicule. But stimulated by 
 the hope of doing something to aid her brother 
 and gain a living for herself, she began to study, 
 practise, and prepare herself. Meanwhile, in the 
 expectation of going away, she knitted as many 
 cotton stockings for her mother and youngest 
 brother " as would last two years at least." 
 
 In the August of 1772, her brother William came 
 to see his mother, and take Caroline to England. 
 She says, " My mother had consented to my going 
 with him, and the anguish of my leaving her was 
 somewhat alleviated by my brother settling a small 
 annuity on her, by which she would be able to keep 
 an attendant to supply my place." 
 
 What a journey she had to England ! In these 
 days, the cheapest train and steamer take a pas-
 
 MISS CAROLINE HERSCHEL. 45 
 
 senger to the Continent in comfort in a few hours ; 
 then, Miss Herchel travelled six days and nights in 
 an open postwagen, and then embarked at Helvoet- 
 sluys, on a stormy sea, to the packet-boat, two miles 
 distant ; and she and her brother were, she says, 
 " thrown on shore by the English sailors like balls, 
 at Yarmouth, for the vessel was almost a wreck, 
 without a main and another of the masts." 
 
 Her troubles were not over on landing ; for after 
 a hasty breakfast, brother and sister mounted some 
 sort of cart, to take them to the place where the 
 London coach passed. They were upset into a 
 ditch, fortunately dry, and came off with only a 
 fright; some kind fellow-passengers, who accom- 
 panied them to London, helping them. 
 
 Poor Caroline entered the metropolis bareheaded, 
 having lost her hat, amid her other troubles of the 
 way. The landlady of the inn in the city lent her 
 a bonnet, and thus equipped, she made one short 
 excursion, to see something of the metropolis. 
 Curiously enough, among all the fine shops she 
 noticed only one with an interested and longing 
 gaze it was an optician's. But they could not 
 linger. That same night saw them on the way to 
 Bath, where they arrived, she says, " almost an- 
 nihilated, having been only twice in bed during 
 their twelve days' journey." 
 
 , It must have been a strange new life to the little 
 German girl at Bath. Her brother William was 
 organist at the Octagon chapel, director of the
 
 46 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 public concerts, and as a teacher of music lie had a 
 large circle of pupils from the first families. All his 
 professional work was, however, with him but 
 means to an end. Every moment of leisure that he 
 could snatch by day from his musical pursuits, and 
 every hour that he could subtract from his sleep at 
 night, were devoted to those astronomical studies 
 to which, by the strong workings of natural genius, 
 he was impelled with a force he had no power or 
 wish to resist. 
 
 From the quietude of her retired home, and the 
 monotonous music of her mother's spinning-wheel 
 and her own knitting needles, Caroline was plunged 
 at once into a life of ceaseless activity. She had a 
 purpose quite as strong as her* brother's, and that 
 was to be in all things possible, and some that 
 seemed impossible, his devoted helper. It is said of 
 her, that for ten years she persevered by night and 
 day, " singing when she was told to sing, copying 
 when she was told to copy, lending a hand in the 
 workshop (where her brother manufactured his tele- 
 scopes), and taking her full share in all the stirring 
 and exciting changes by which the musician ultimate- 
 ly became the king's astronomer and a celebrity." 
 
 Besides all these unusual duties, she kept her 
 brother's house, and had a full share of trouble with 
 inefficient and wasteful servants, whose extrava- 
 gance shocked her thrifty habits and harassed her 
 temper. Yet she never says anything of her own 
 exertions or privations in that arduous time of toil,
 
 MISS CAROLINE HERSGHEL. 47 
 
 and only recalled them to her nephew in after-days, 
 " to show," as she said, " with what miserable as- 
 sistance your father made shift to obtain the means 
 of exploring the heavens." Every one but herself 
 would call it most invaluable assistance, every 
 power of her body and mind being devoted to him. 
 
 At breakfast times, upon her first arrival, her 
 brother gave her some lessons in English and arith- 
 metic. " By way of relaxation, we talked of astro- 
 nomy, and the bright constellations with which 
 I had made acquaintance during the fine nights 
 we had spent on the postwagen, travelling through 
 Holland/' In this desultory way she began the 
 studies in which she ultimately excelled. Had she 
 chosen, there is little doubt she might have had 
 great success as a public singer ; but her brother's 
 tastes and pursuits were hers, and no excitement of 
 praise, or hope of emolument, ever interfered with 
 her steady resolve to work for and with him. 
 
 The difficulties, fatigues, and dangers of her 
 brother's experiments and first mechanical contri- 
 vances were almost innumerable. There was then 
 no optician resident in Bath, and the toil of making 
 tubes for telescopes, polishing mirrors, procuring or 
 inventing tools, took up all the time that could be 
 spared from music. Indeed, Caroline had to watch 
 her brother, and almost put the food in his mouth, 
 so that his health might not suffer by his mind 
 being so absorbed in his scientific pursuits. 
 
 As far as a wide reading of biography enables
 
 48 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 me to judge, I think there is no record of such 
 hard, various, and continued study and work as that 
 which was performed by this remarkable woman. 
 Her brother's career was extraordinary, but he had 
 the advantage of a good, sound, early education, and 
 habits of study fostered by his father's approbation. 
 Caroline had merely been able to gather the crumbs 
 of knowledge that fell around her in her childhood's 
 home, and to devour them in secrecy and fright, being 
 far more likely to have blame than praise. All 
 the deficiencies of her early mental training she had 
 now to make up, as well as to pursue tasks wholly 
 unusual to her sex. At night she watched the 
 heavens with her brother, regardless of, yet not 
 without feeling, cold and weariness. Once, on a 
 bitter December night, she records, that in making 
 some alteration in the machinery of the telescope, 
 she slipped on the snowy ground, and was impaled 
 on an iron hook. " My brother's call, ' Make haste/ 
 I could only answer by a pitiful cry, ' I am 
 hooked/ He and the workman were instantly 
 with me ; but they could not lift me without leaving 
 nearly two ounces of my flesh behind. The work- 
 man's wife was called, but was afraid to do any- 
 thing ; and I was obliged to be my own surgeon, by 
 applying aquabusade (water bandages) and tying 
 kerchiefs about it for some days." The wound was 
 bad for a long time ; and a physician told her that 
 had a soldier met with such a hurt he would have 
 been entitled to six weeks' nursing in hospital.
 
 MISS CAROLINE HEESCHEL. 49 
 
 The astronomical discoveries of her brother at- 
 tracted the attention of the scientific world, and led 
 to George III., his Queen, and the Princesses taking 
 an interest in the astronomer. Royal patronage, and 
 still more, his own strong desire, determined William 
 Herschel to devote himself entirely to his astronomi- 
 cal studies. The brother and sister played and sung 
 professionally for the last time on Whit- Sunday, 1782, 
 at St. Margaret's Chapel, Bath, the anthem for the 
 day being a composition of William Herschel. 
 
 The honours which came to the brother were by 
 no means remunerative. He gave up his pupils and 
 musical career at Bath, which had enabled him to 
 spend a large amount of money on scientific instru- 
 ment and experiments. His salary, when he was 
 appointed Royal Astronomer, was but 200 a year ! 
 Well might Sir William Watson say, "Never 
 bought monarch honour so cheap." 
 
 This stipend would not have paid the rent of the 
 new Observatory and the expenses of frequent jour- 
 neys to and fro to the king and queen at Windsor, 
 but for the astronomer's success in making tele- 
 scopes for sale. He was compelled to pursue this 
 mechanical branch, or he could not have continued 
 his observations of the heavens. 
 
 His sister, finding she must qualify herself as 
 assistant astronomer, learned to use the telescope, 
 and, as she called it, " sweep the heavens/' in 
 which she soon acquired great skill. In her 
 brother's absences from home, she, to use her own 
 
 E
 
 50 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 quaint phrase, " Minded the heavens/' and with 
 such success that her watching was rewarded in a 
 very wonderful way. On the 1st of August, 1786, 
 she discovered a comet; and, her brother being 
 abroad, she with characteristic promptitude wrote 
 en the following morning an account of her dis- 
 covery to two eminent men, Dr. Blagden and Alex. 
 Aubert, Esq., who in a few days congratulated her 
 warmly, the latter saying, " You have immortalized 
 your name ; and you deserve such a reward from 
 the Being who has ordered all these things to move 
 as we find them, for your assiduity in the business 
 of astronomy, and for your love for so celebrated 
 and deserving a brother." 
 
 From this time, Miss Caroline Herschel became 
 what, in her humility, she never desired to be a 
 celebrity. She rather shrunk from any praise of 
 herself, as if it was taken from her brother. He 
 was to her as the sun, and she merely a shadow 
 called up by his brightness. Surely, it was an 
 absurd and exaggerated humility in her to Say, " I 
 did nothing for my brother but what a well-trained 
 puppy-dog would have done. I was a mere tool, 
 which he had the trouble of sharpening/' 
 
 All the thoughtful people of her own time, and 
 still more since the narrative of her life has been 
 given to the world, will not take her own estimate 
 of herself. She achieved individual, quite as much 
 as relative greatness. 
 
 Space will not permit me to follow the career of
 
 MISS CAROLINE HERSCHEL. 51 
 
 Miss Herschel as an astronomer, except to remind 
 my young readers that she did not allow herself to 
 become less diligent as she grew more celebrated. 
 A real love of science for its own sake, and not 
 for any praise, still less for pecuniary advantage, 
 possessed and ennobled her mind. She had the 
 small salary of fifty pounds a year awarded her as 
 assistant astronomer, and this was continued as a 
 pension in- her old age. 
 
 Her discovery of the first comet was followed by 
 that of seven or eight others. After her brother's 
 marriage, which took place late in his life to a very 
 amiable lady, Miss Herschel removed to a small re- 
 sidence near him, and continued to sit up with him 
 in his observatory, note down his observations, and 
 make necessary and difficult calculations for him. 
 She was greatly delighted, with what may be called 
 an almost maternal joy, when a son of that beloved 
 brother was placed in her arms that son who lived 
 to nobly inherit his father's genius, and uphold and 
 extend the fame of the honoured name of Herschel. 
 
 Of course as celebrity came to her she was sought 
 out by the wealthy and distinguished ; but whether 
 in the courtly sphere of royalty, or among the elite 
 of fashionable and scientific circles, she always 
 retained the unaffected simplicity of her manners, 
 delighting all by her friendliness and entire freedom 
 from assumption. She was a true gentlewoman in 
 heart and manners, thinking always of others rather 
 than of herself.
 
 52 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 Miss Herschel reached the age of seventy, and 
 was still toiling on at her celestial studies, when 
 her brother, Sir William, died, full of years and 
 honours, aged eighty-two. She mourned him with 
 an intensity of sorrow that seemed like the uproot- 
 ing of her own heart. She felt that she could not 
 live in England now he was gone, and went home 
 to her native land to die. It was not exactly a wise 
 determination. The resolutions we take in sorrow, 
 or in any strong emotion, are more the result of 
 excited feeling than calm judgment ; and so it was 
 in this case. The country she returned to, after 
 nearly fifty years' absence, was not at all like the 
 place she had left, or that youthful memory had 
 retained in her mind. All her immediate acquain- 
 tance and most of her kinsfolk were gone, or came 
 to her as strangers. She left the most cultured 
 circle in England to find neither companionship for 
 her heart or her mind. Yet deep as the disappoint- 
 ment must have been, she did not say much about 
 it; for at first she thought her life would not last 
 long, and after that she grew more accustomed to 
 the change. Her correspondence with her nephew, 
 Sir John Herschel, to whom she transferred the love 
 she had borne his father, that nephew's success in 
 his scientific career, the letters and tributes she 
 received from eminent people throughout England 
 and the world, and the respect with which she was 
 treated by all at Hanover, from the king and his 
 family, with whom she was a great favourite, to
 
 MISS CAROLINE HERSCHEL. 58 
 
 the more accessible circles of intellectual society 
 all these gradually reconciled her to her residence, 
 and made it less a state of exile. 
 
 Moreover, her sincere and cheerful piety sustained 
 her, as year followed year and found her yet re- 
 maining, still taking an interest in all that was 
 going on in the scientific world, and deeply sympa- 
 thising in the greater advantages of education that 
 were coming within the reach of her own sex. She 
 deplored what she thought (and not without reason) 
 the extravagance in modern attire among women. 
 Her own modest income of 50 a year, to which 
 her nephew insisted, against her remonstrance, on 
 adding another 50, was always sufficient for her 
 wants, although she visited and received the visits 
 of royalty. A single maid- servant conducted her 
 frugal household arrangements in her simple apart- 
 ments ; and thus in all the dignity of simplicity and 
 independence her life went on, until it almost 
 seemed as if death had forgotten her. 
 
 'Sir John HerscheFs visit to the Cape (1834), 
 to make astronomical observations, interested her 
 greatly. She was amused when the asti-onomical so- 
 
 * 
 
 cieties of England and Dublin elected her a mem- 
 ber, and awarded her a medal. She could not be- 
 lieve she had done anything very great, or indeed 
 at all worthy of being called great ; and she said, 
 quaintly enough, "To think of their electing me, 
 when I have not discovered a comet for eighteen 
 years ! "
 
 54 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 She lived to within nearly fwo years ^of a hun- 
 dred. In anticipation of her death, she had long 
 before composed her epitaph, and left memorials to 
 her nephew and a few relatives, and her books and 
 telescopes to friends and learned Societies. 
 
 She retained her faculties unclouded, and her 
 will strong and active to the last. It was winter 
 when the end came, and she had reluctantly to 
 keep her bed, but was free from pain, and able to 
 raise herself and converse. 
 
 The guns which announced the birth of a child 
 in the royal family struck on her dying ear; she 
 was told the cause. The departing one expressed 
 hopes for the new pilgrim, and then fell gently 
 asleep. With scarcely a struggle, she entered into 
 rest on the 9th of January, 1848. She was buried 
 beside her father and mother,, and her tomb bears 
 the following inscription : 
 
 HERE RESTS THE EARTHLY EXTERIOR 02 
 
 CAROLINE HERSCHEL, 
 
 BORN AT HANOVER, MARCH 36TH, 17uO, 
 
 DIED JANY. 9TH, 1848. 
 
 The eyes of her who is glorified were here below turned 
 toithe starry heavens. Her own discoveries of comets, and 
 her participation in the immortal labours of her brother, 
 William Herschel, bear witness of this to future ages.
 
 ira2 all Sliijo Uairaedi --^~ x ^
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 jVliss ELIZABETH SMITH. 
 
 8ELF-CULTUKE. 
 
 excellent systems of teaching 
 in the present day so smooth the 
 steep hill of difficulty to the 
 young seeker after knowledge, 
 that it is sometimes thought there 
 is no great need of saying much 
 noiv about self-training and cul- 
 ture. Every facility is afforded 
 to learners, and the assumption 
 is that all learn readily, and that 
 allusions to and examples of what was in forme" 
 times very justly called "the pursuit of knowledge 
 under difficulties " are now no longer needed. 
 
 While rejoicing heartily that the difficulties in 
 the way of school instruction are removed, that 
 elementary knowledge is insisted on for all, and 
 that culture in the higher branches of attainment
 
 58 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 is generally accessible, I yet think that there is 
 some danger it may be great danger that the 
 young will depend too much on what is done for 
 them, and think too little of what, if they are to 
 be really cultivated and intelligent women, must be 
 done by them. No system of instruction can pos- 
 sibly supersede thoughtful effort and diligent at- 
 tention in the pupil, or compensate for wise appli- 
 cation of attainments when girlhood merges into 
 womanhood. 
 
 There is a sense, and a very important sense too, 
 in which every one who really is well-informed must 
 be self-taught. Instruction given is one thing, 
 instruction received another. No plans of educa- 
 tion can supersede or supply a substitute for the 
 faculty of attention and the practice of diligence. 
 What the young mind desires and resolves to do 
 for itself is of the utmost importance to that mind. 
 Instruction may stream on and over the mind like 
 water over a mirror, and make no abiding-place 
 in it. 
 
 In the times gone by, people were rather to be 
 pitied than blamed if they were ignorant. " Igno- 
 rance of what they could not know" was not culpable. 
 But now, with all the facilities which schools and 
 libraries afford, ignorance is a disgrace which every 
 right-minded young person should resolutely avoid. 
 When darkness prevailed, none were to blame for 
 not seeing ; but to be voluntarily dark amid the 
 blaze of day, that is indeed culpable. It is the awful
 
 MISS ELIZABETH SMITH. 59 
 
 realization of the solemn words : " If the light that 
 is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness I" 
 
 Hence it is a salutary exercise to look back on 
 former times, and refresh our mind's and stimulate 
 our faculties with the records and experience of 
 those who have had to cope with hardships no 
 longer existing, and whose mental and moral 
 triumphs over difficulties remain as an example to 
 all thoughtful readers. 
 
 Few young women in any age or country were 
 more successful in acquiring knowledge, or more 
 modest, conscientious, and judicious in its use, than 
 Miss Elizabeth Smith, the Oriental scholar, and 
 the translator of the Book of Job ; and readers are 
 more drawn to the consideration of her acquire- 
 ments from the fact that her Christian character 
 was even more lofty than her remarkable mind. 
 
 There is not much to record in her uneventful, 
 brief, yet beautiful life. Some sorrows came to 
 test her principles and show her sweet sympathy 
 and calm fortitude. 
 
 In the year 1793, times were very hard in Eng- 
 land. The French Revolution had startled the 
 whole civilized world. War was rampant, opinions 
 were conflicting, property was insecure, taxation 
 high, trade and commerce much depressed. It was 
 not wonderful that the moneyed interest should 
 suffer, and many banks broke. One in the West 
 of England, of which a Mr. Smith was the leading 
 partner, failed; and the blow that shattered the
 
 60 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 dwelling may be said to have let in light, by which 
 we plainly see a most interesting family circle. 
 
 The eldest daughter, Elizabeth, was sixteen years 
 of age just able to enjoy and estimate the elegan- 
 cies and comforts that were lost. The blow fell 
 suddenly for, in such crises, failures are often the 
 result of the difficulties of others, and become be- 
 yond individual control and the family at Fierce- 
 field were looking forward, not unreasonably, to 
 building a new house, and to years of prosperity 
 and domestic happiness. 
 
 Fortunately, Mrs. Smith, the mother in that 
 home, was a woman of great good sense as well as 
 refinement. She had not been domesticated in one 
 residence for any long period of her married life. 
 She resided at Burnhall, the seat of her ancestors, 
 near Durham, when Elizabeth, her eldest daughter, 
 was born, in 1776. Thence the family removed to 
 Suffolk for a time, and afterwards lived at Fierce- 
 field, or Bath. Mrs. Smith was her children's first 
 instructress, and was equally surprised and de- 
 lighted both at the quickness and attention of little 
 Elizabeth. She was a docile, rather shy child, very 
 lovely in person, and gentle in temper. 
 
 A young lady, Miss Hunt, an orphan, only some 
 seventeen years of age, was taken by Mrs. Smith 
 as a governess to her little family, and from her 
 Elizabeth received all the regular instruction that 
 was ever bestowed on her. The young governess 
 was kind and good, and tolerably clever ; but her
 
 MISS ELIZABETH SMITH. 61 
 
 pupil Elizabeth was what every wise teacher wishes 
 to have a learner ; and her progress, particularly 
 in languages, was surprising. By the time she was 
 thirteen, she had surpassed her governess in attain- 
 ments. 
 
 I observe, too, from her letters* that she com- 
 pelled herself to studies that she did not like so 
 well as languages. Many a girl will devote herself 
 to what comes easy and pleasant to her, but avoids 
 what tasks her intellect. Arithmetic and mathe- 
 matical studies were not favourite pursuits with 
 Elizabeth; but she overcame her reluctance, not 
 from any parental command, but because she was 
 impressed with the value of solid studies, and the 
 duty of cultivating her mind in all branches which 
 she had an opportunity of acquiring. 
 
 Elizabeth was but fifteen when, by the removal of 
 this first and only governess, the instruction of her 
 younger sisters and brothers devolved on her. No 
 doubt this use of her education had long been 
 thought of by her. Mrs. Smith's health- grew 
 delicate, and the good daughter had early learned 
 to be her mother's helper. Her fingers were skil- 
 ful on the piano, but they were as active and as 
 skilled in making and mending her own and the 
 younger children's clothes. She was one of those 
 may their numbers ever increase who thought 
 all acquirements and accomplishments should be 
 so used as to promote domestic order and social 
 
 * Mrs. H. M. Bowdler's account of Miss Elizabeth Smith.
 
 62 WOMEN WOETH EMULATING. 
 
 comfort and refined pursuits. Hence there was no 
 selfishness in her motives. 
 
 By early rising, she had time for her reading of 
 the poets, English, German, and Italian, as well as 
 superintending the lessons of the younger children. 
 How much depends on the eldest daughter in a 
 home! How she may become a sweet companion 
 for the leisure hours of her father, a ready helper in 
 household matters to her mother, a tender and wise 
 friend to her younger brothers and sisters, a loving 
 and beloved assistant to all ! 
 
 This wise discipline of early life, when there was 
 no fear of any change of social position, un- 
 doubtedly fitted Elizabeth for the altered circum- 
 stances that came to her just as womanhood was 
 opening before her. 
 
 Of course there must have been grief and per- 
 plexity for her father and mother, but there never 
 was a nrarmur from herself. She became more 
 cheerful and active than before, so as to lighten the 
 cares of others. The younger children clung to her 
 with increased affection, for she was ever ready to 
 teach or to play with them, and to supply, as far as 
 she could, every want of the attendance they had 
 been used to, and to teach them by her own example 
 to be gentle and helpful. 
 
 For some time the family were absolutely with- 
 out a home of their own. The kindness of friends 
 was shown by offers of hospitality, and the family 
 visited among intimates and connections until some-
 
 MISS ELIZABETH SMITH. 63 
 
 thing could be settled on for them. Elizabeth, 
 amid all these interruptions, kept up her own 
 studies and gave constant help to her mother with 
 the younger branches of the family. 
 
 Mr. Smith obtained a commissio*n and entered 
 the army. -This, in Elizabeth's seventeenth year, 
 necessitated their removal to Ireland. Her father 
 joined his regiment at Sligo, and his family went 
 to him. Mrs. Smith, in a letter to Dr. Randolph,, 
 says : 
 
 " Books are not light of carriage, and the blow 
 which deprived us of Piercefield deprived us of a 
 library also. But though this period of her (Eliza's) 
 life (while with the regiment in Ireland) afforded 
 little opportunity for improvement in science, the 
 qualities of her heart never appeared in a more ami- 
 able light. Through all the inconveniences which 
 attended our situation while living in barracks, the 
 firmness and cheerful resignation of her mind made 
 me blush for the tear which too frequently trembled 
 in my eye at the recollection of the comforts we 
 had lost." 
 
 On their first arrival in Ireland, in the summer 
 of 1796, they passed some time as guests at the 
 Earl of Kingston's residence, and went from thence 
 to join Captain Smith at Sligo. Although it was 
 summer, the weather was very wet, and the family 
 seem to have had a wretched journey, and found 
 that no comforts awaited them at their quarters in 
 the Sligo barracks. In a letter to a friend, Eliza-
 
 Dl WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 be th says, " We were all completely wet through 
 when we arrived, and had everything to unpack, and 
 beds to contrive and arrange. " She adds, " we are 
 all very well and much amused with the little mis- 
 fortunes that happen to us." 
 
 It is wonderful to think of her cheerfulness ; for 
 Mrs. Smith, in a letter on the same subject, says, 
 " We arrived at the barracks, dripping wet. Our 
 baggage not come, and, owing to the negligence 
 of the quarter-master, there was not even a bed to 
 rest on. The whole furniture of our apartments 
 consisted of a piece of a cart-wheel for a fender, a 
 bit of iron for a poker, a dirty deal table, and three 
 wooden-bottomed chairs. It was the first time we 
 had joined the regiment; and I was standing by the 
 fire meditating on our forlorn state, and perhaps 
 dwelling too much on the comforts I had lost, when 
 I was roused from my reverie by Elizabeth ex- 
 claiming, ' Oh, what a blessing ! ' 
 
 " ' Bles'sing ! ' I replied; 'there seems none 
 left/ 
 
 " ' Indeed there is, dear mother; for see, here is 
 a little cupboard/ 
 
 " I dried my tears, and endeavoured to learn for- 
 titude from my daughter." 
 
 That lovely and gifted daughter immediately set 
 to work to make a meal for the family, and to put 
 the little cupboard to use for holding necessaries; 
 and with characteristic ingenuity and good humour, 
 she contrived a little luxurious surprise for the
 
 MISS ELIZABETH SMITH. 65 
 
 family by making them a currant tart. What a 
 treasure was her activity and unfailing good 
 humour ! Not that she did not feel the change of 
 circumstances, for with her thoughtful mind and 
 tender heart she must have felt deeply; but she 
 was intent on lightening the burden for the rest, 
 and in this found her own soul comforted. 
 
 I have said she was a good needlewoman, and her 
 own dress and that of the family depended almost 
 entirely on her skill and taste. It was remarked of 
 her, when she was grown up and mixed in the 
 small but very cultivated circle of her friends, that 
 her taste was so correct, no lady could be more 
 elegantly and yet more simply dressed. Economy 
 and neatness were both combined with taste and 
 refinement, an equal avoidance of finery and shabbi- 
 ness, which I think my judicious young readers will 
 esteem the perfection of good sense in dress for 
 those whose means are limited. 
 
 Although there were many interruptions and im- 
 pediments to the studies that she loved during her 
 residence in Ireland, and Elizabeth could not ob- 
 tain the books she wished for, yet she made good 
 use of such as fell in her way. Some Greek and 
 Latin works especially came within reach, and she 
 employed her brief leisure, or rather, by her habits 
 of economizing time and rising early, made leisure 
 to use these books in helping her to obtain classical 
 knowledge. 
 
 From Ireland, the family returned to Bath, and 
 
 I
 
 66 WOMUN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 here she resumed her Hebrew and her German 
 studies, having access to books that helped her. 
 She seems to have pursued her student course 
 alone, as regards tuition, being her own tutor, but 
 not without admiring encouragement from her 
 family and friends. There were found among her 
 papers the following reflections, written on the day 
 of her coming of age : 
 
 " Being now arrived at what is called years of 
 discretion, and looking back on my past life with 
 shame and confusion, when I recollect the many 
 advantages I have had, and the bad use I have 
 made of them, the hours I have squandered, and 
 the opportunities of improvement I have neglected ; 
 when I imagine what with those advantages I ought 
 to be, and find myself what I am, I am resolved to 
 endeavour to be more careful for the future, if 
 the future be granted me ; to try to make amends 
 for past negligence by employing every moment I 
 can command to some good purpose ; to endeavour 
 to acquire all the little knowledge that human 
 nature is capable of on earth, but to let , the Word 
 of God be my chief study, and all others subser- 
 vient to it. To model myself, as far as I am able, 
 according to the gospel of Christ ; to be content 
 while my trial lasts ; and when it is finished, to re- 
 joice, trusting in the merits of my Eedeemer. I 
 have written these resolutions to stand as a witness 
 against me, in case I should be inclined to forget 
 them,, and to return to my former indolence and
 
 MISS ELIZABETH SMITH. 67 
 
 thoughtlessness, because I have found the inutility 
 of mental determinations. May God give me 
 strength to keep them ! " 
 
 The prayer with, which this resolve concludes 
 shows the source to which alone she looked for 
 strength and grace. Resolutions made in our own 
 strength only are never likely to produce the re- 
 sults we wish. They are evanescent, like the morn- 
 ing cloud and early dew. 
 
 Captain Smith's stay with his regiment was pro- 
 longed for some years ; and his family at length 
 were settled in a little retreat at Coniston, in a very 
 beautiful region, since become celebrated not only 
 for its great natural beauties, but for the many 
 eminent literary people who have taken up their 
 residence within the lake district, and have made 
 its scenery ever memorable. 
 
 From the time that Elizabeth began to study 
 Hebrew, she devoted herself to the examination 
 of, and to translations from, the Holy Scriptures. 
 This indeed was her motive in entering on a course 
 of study not common now, and very uncommon then, 
 among women. She was eminently a Bible student, 
 and the work of her life, which honourably ranks 
 her among contributors to the literature of her 
 time, was her translation of the Book of Job a 
 very ambitious effort for a young and self-taught 
 woman. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Magee, of Trinity College, known then as 
 a great Hebraist and authority in Biblical criticism,
 
 68 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 wrote of Elizabeth Smith's translation : , " After a 
 close scrutiny and a careful comparison with the 
 original, it strikes me as conveying more of the 
 true character and meaning of the Hebrew, with 
 fewer departures from the idiom of the English 
 than any other translation whatever that we possess. 
 It combines accuracy of style, and unites critical 
 research with familiar exposition. " 
 
 This work was finished in 1803. She occupied 
 herself also, while at Coniston, with making trans- 
 lations from the German of Klopstock,* chiefly 
 letters and papers of the illustrious German de- 
 votional poet, and his congenial-minded wife ; and 
 it was said of her success in clothing the German 
 author in an English dress : " Klopstock, under 
 her management, talks English as well as his native 
 tongue ; and the warmest of his admirers would 
 rejoice to hear the facility and precision with which 
 she has taught their favourite poet and philosopher 
 to converse amongst us." 
 
 Her acquaintance with eminent poetical writings, 
 and more especially with so sublime a work as the 
 Book of Job, gave her a distaste for her own original 
 poetic compositions. She felt their inferiority to the 
 models which had formed her taste, and therefore, to 
 the regret of many friends, ceased to exercise her 
 pen in that way. As there is no subject, on which 
 even sensible people so often deceive themselves, as 
 on that of their own powers of poetic writings, 
 * Author of "The Messiah," etc.
 
 MISS ELIZABETH SMITH. t>9 
 
 it shows us both the humility and the sound judg- 
 ment of this young lady, that she early came to the 
 conclusion, that while she had poetic feeling and 
 fine taste, she had not in a high degree the gift of 
 poetic expression. 
 
 It is pleasant to think that the last two years of 
 this sweet life were passed amid scenery that she 
 loved, and that her health, until a few months be- 
 fore her lamented death, was perfect. She made 
 many sketching excursions, and returned exhilarated 
 from the long walks to many beautiful scenes, which 
 her skilful and ready pencil had transferred to her 
 sketch-book. The commencement of her illness is 
 given by herself : 
 
 " One very hot evening in July I took a book 
 and walked about two miles from home, where I 
 seated myself on a stone beside the lake. Being 
 much engaged by a poem I was reading, I did not per- 
 ceive that the sun was gone down, and was succeeded 
 by a very heavy dew, till in a moment I felt struck 
 on the chest as if with a sharp knife. I returned 
 home, but said nothing of the pain. The next day 
 being also very hot, and every one busy in the hay- 
 field, I thought I would take a rake and work very* 
 hard to produce perspiration, in the hope that it 
 might remove the pain, but it did not." 
 
 From that time a bad cough and frequent loss of 
 voice alarmed her family. In the autumn, as she 
 became worse, she was removed to a milder climate, 
 and reached the house of a friend at Gloucester.
 
 70 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 Thence she was taken to Finsbury, where she 
 stayed five months. Afterwards, in May, Dr. 
 Baillie of London recommended Matlock ; but, as 
 she did not improve, and confirmed consumption 
 had set in, at her earnest desire she returned to 
 Coniston, and on reaching her pretty cottage home, 
 she said, " If I cannot live here, I am sure I can 
 nowhere else." 
 
 Here, in a few weeks, the end drew near, but the 
 gentle sufferer was so serenely calm and unmurmur- 
 ing, that no one but her mother thought her so ill 
 as she really was. Nor did she herself anticipate 
 so sudden a release as she experienced. But she 
 was, by faith in Jesus, always ready, and never 
 depressed. On the night of the 7th August, 1806, 
 she became very exhausted and somewhat restless. 
 She would not let her mother sit up with her, fear- 
 ing the fatigue would be injurious to her. An old 
 and faithful servant was with the sufferer early in 
 the morning, and yielded to her wish to get up and 
 be dressed. While this was being done, a slight 
 tremor shook Elizabeth's feeble frame ; she leaned 
 her head on the attendant's shoulder, and with a 
 gentle sigh the spirit fled to join its kindred 
 among the just made perfect. Surely there was 
 infinite mercy in such an easy dismissal to one so 
 prepared ! 
 
 One lesson of humility from her own private 
 meditations deserves to be remembered by all 
 young readers; to the highly gifted it is the most
 
 MISS ELIZABETH SMITH. 7l 
 
 applicable "The more talents and good qualities 
 we nave received, the more humble we ought to be, 
 because we have the less merit in doing right." 
 
 She was buried at Hawkeshead, where a white 
 marble tablet is inscribed: 
 
 IN MEMORY OF 
 ELIZABETH, 
 
 ELDEST DAUGHTER OF GEORGE SMITH, 
 
 OF CONISTON, ESQ. 
 SHE DIED AUGUST THE 7Tii, AGED 29. 
 
 SHE POSSESSED GREAT TALENTS, 
 
 EXALTED VIRTUES, 
 AND HUMBLE PIETY.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 AMELIA p P I E , 
 AN ONLY DAUGHTER. 
 
 'HERE are few conditions of life more 
 abounding both in responsibilities and 
 temptations than that of an only daugh- 
 ter, called at an early age, by the death 
 of her mother, to take that mother's va- 
 cant place and superintend her father's 
 house. She has to be his earthly con- 
 soler, his duteous child, and the careful manager 
 of his domestic affairs, just after they have been 
 wrecked or shattered by a heavy blow. It must 
 be her study to prevent her father from having to 
 mourn over a ruined home, as well as a departed 
 wife. 
 
 " Poor thing ! she has lost her mother when she 
 needed her care most," is the frequent remark when 
 a young maiden is thus left, left, just as childhood 
 is merging into womanhood, and all the varied diffi- 
 culties, mistakes, and peculiar trials of youth have 
 to be encountered by the motherless girl. Every 
 feeling heart must be interested in one so situated ;

 
 AMELIA OPIE. 75 
 
 every Christian spirit will be ready to breathe a 
 prayer for, and give gentle counsel to, a daughter 
 so bereaved. 
 
 Yet among the sweet examples which rise to our 
 observation or memory, if we are thoughtful 
 seekers for excellence, we shall find many an in- 
 stance, among high and low, of a daughter taking 
 her mother's place showing her tender love for 
 the departed, not so much by tears and grief as by 
 trying to fulfil every duty, and seeking to compen- 
 sate the home for the loss of the wife and mother, 
 who, if worthy of those names, was the central 
 light of the dwelling. 
 
 In many a humble home, the family have had to 
 cling to some elder sister, who seemed to have put 
 off her childhood at her mother's grave; and, while 
 the tears were still wet upon her cheeks, has begun 
 to set the house in order, to tend the children, to 
 pay extra attention to the head of the family, and in 
 a thousand ways to prevent the father from being 
 utterly crushed by his trouble. God's blessing is 
 on all such efforts of affection ! The effort is 
 indeed twice blessed to the youthful mind that 
 makes it, and to the home it is made for. Many a 
 thoughtless girl has been developed into a noble 
 woman by such a discipline of sorrow. 
 
 But the temptations of youth are much increased 
 in the case of an only daughter whose father is in 
 that position in life which belongs to a superior 
 station. A professional man, whether doctor or
 
 76 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 lawyer, is not able to leave the locality in which 
 he lives in search of the consolation of travel ; he 
 must remain among- his patients or clients. He 
 may have household arrangements which cannot, 
 without utter discomfiture, be altered; and if, being 
 the father of an only daughter, he has no near 
 female relative of mature years to undertake the 
 management of his domestic affairs, he is com- 
 mitted either to an upper servant, or to the plan 
 of putting his child at the head of his house and 
 confiding to her youth a charge which demands 
 a thoughtful care scarcely to be expected in early 
 years. Happy the man whose daughter in such an 
 exigency shows herself equal to the task of filling 
 her mother's place in his home and heart. 
 
 In the year 1784, Dr. Alderson, an eminent 
 physician of Norwich, lost his wife, and was left 
 with an only daughter, Amelia, aged fifteen. This 
 young lady at once became her father's house- 
 keeper as well as companion. She was gifted with 
 so many advantages of person and mind that her 
 childhood had attracted the attention of all who 
 knew her. Fair and blooming, with a smiling face 
 and beaming eyes, perfect health, great vivacity, a 
 sweet voice, and frank charming manners, she 
 seemed the very embodiment of the poet's ideal of 
 joyous youth. 
 
 Great attention had been paid to her education, 
 and very uncommon advantages of intellectual cul- 
 ture had been bestowed. A Flemish pastor, the
 
 AMELIA OPIE. 77 
 
 Rev. John Bruckner, settled in Norwich when 
 Amelia Alderson was seven years of age, and he 
 gave her instruction in the French language, and 
 also in some solid branches of acquirement then 
 much neglected in female education. She had 
 great love of, and some skill in, music particularly 
 singing. Added to this was a mind active to 
 acquire and tenacious to retain knowledge, with an 
 imagination so graceful, and a love of poetry so 
 great, that its youthful possessor was in danger of 
 living too much in an ideal world, for her gifts 
 were just those which need the utmost discretion 
 in their culture and use. 
 
 This first grief the loss of her mother checked 
 the exuberance of her spirits, and called her reflect- 
 ive faculties into exercise. That dear mother had 
 been wise and firm, as well as tender in the manage- 
 ment of her gifted child, who had the good sense 
 and gratitude to remember her admonitions and 
 reproofs, as thankfully as the more indulgent and 
 pleasant evidences of her affection. In a sweet 
 poem to her mother's memory, written some years 
 after her death, Amelia says : 
 
 " Oh how I mourned my heedless youth 
 
 Thy watchful care repaid so ill ; 
 Yet joyed to think some words of truth 
 
 Sunk in my soul and teach me still; 
 Like lamps along life's fearful way, 
 
 To me, at times, those truths have shone; 
 And oft when snares around me lay, 
 
 That light has made my danger known.
 
 78 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 Then how thy grateful child has blest 
 Each wise reproof thy accents bore ! 
 
 And now she longs, in worlds of rest, 
 To dwell with thee for evermore." 
 
 It is not wonderful that this lovely girl, brought 
 into society when young people of her age were 
 in the schoolroom, should have been much admired 
 and sought after. A vain or romantic girl would 
 have been ruined by so much praise ; a cold-hearted 
 and selfish one would have taken it as her right, 
 and sought only her own pleasure ; but this young 
 lady had two great preservatives her deep love for 
 her father, and her conscientious desire to act as her 
 pious mother, if living, would have approved. 
 
 She had not then, nor for some years afterwards, 
 the guidance of that unerring light which religious 
 conviction gives to the soul ! but wise early training 
 had its influence, and she sought and loved the 
 society of the good and intellectual. Her earliest 
 friend, on whom she relied for advice, to whom she 
 gave her confidence, was Mrs. John Taylor, a lady 
 distinguished among the then very cultivated society 
 of Norwich, for her many excellences of mind and 
 character. Nothing is so important to the young 
 as the friendships they form. The common proverb 
 contains a volume of wisdom : " Tell me your com- 
 pany, and I will tell you your manners." 
 
 Dr. Alderson was intimate with most of those 
 memorable Norwich families whose names have 
 gained a world-wide celebrity. The Taylors, the
 
 AMELIA OPUS. 79 
 
 Martineaus, the Gurneys, and, later on, Bishop 
 Stanley and his family. In such a circle, there was 
 everything to stimulate the development of mind 
 and give a bias to genius ; and the young mistress of 
 Dr. Alderson's house was soon as distinguished 
 among her intellectual friends for her talents, as 
 she was beloved for the sweetness of her temper 
 and disposition. 
 
 Although she did not apparently contemplate 
 becoming an authoress, it was known by her intimate 
 friends that she had a gift of poetic expression ; 
 and many sweet stanzas and some charming songs 
 of her composition were circulated among her 
 friends. In after-years she was destined to be 
 known and celebrated as a writer both in prose and 
 verse, of works admirable for purity, pathos, and 
 sound morality. In an age when woman's genius 
 has gained great triumphs in the highest depart- 
 ments of literature, some of the poems of Amelia 
 Opie have retained their place as true expressions 
 of genius. And one is just now, in this time of 
 war and carnage, singularly touching : 
 
 THE ORPHAN EOT. 
 
 Stay, lady, stay, for mercy's sake, 
 
 And hear a helpless orphan's tale, 
 Ah ! sure my looks must pity wake, 
 
 Tis want that makes my ch'eek so pale. 
 Yet I was once a mother's pride, 
 
 And my brave father's hope and joy ; 
 But in the Nile's proud fight he died, 
 
 And I am now an orphan boy.
 
 80 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 Poor foolish child ! how pleased was I 
 
 When news of Nelson's victory came, 
 Along the crowded streets to fly, 
 
 And see the lighted windows flame ! 
 To force me home my mother sought, 
 
 She could not bear to see my joy ; 
 For with my father's life 'twas bought, 
 
 And made me a poor orphan boy. 
 
 The people's shouts were long and loud, 
 
 My mother, shuddering; closed her ears ; 
 " Kejoice ! rejoice ! " still cried the crowd ; 
 
 My mother answered with her tears. 
 " Why are you crying thus," said I, 
 
 " While others laugh and shout with joy?" 
 She kissed me and with such a sigh ! 
 
 She called me her poor orphan boy. 
 
 " What is an orphan boy ?" I cried, 
 
 As in her face I looked, and smiled; 
 My mother through her tears replied, 
 
 "You'll know too soon, ill-fated child!" 
 And now they've tolled my mother's knell, 
 
 And I'm no more a parent's joy ; 
 O lady, I have learned too well 
 
 What 'tis to be an orphan boy! 
 
 Oh ! were I by your bounty fed ! 
 
 Nay, gentle lady, do not chide 
 Trust me, I mean to earn my bread ; 
 
 The sailor's orphan boy has pride. 
 Lady, you weep! ha? this to me? 
 
 You'll give me clothing, food, employ ? 
 Look down, dear parents ! look, and see 
 
 Your happy, happy, orphan boy ! 
 
 One of the occupations of her childhood was so 
 unusual that it excites astonishment. The coming
 
 AMELIA OPIE. 81 
 
 of the judges and the opening of the law-courts 
 at the assizes, of course was, and is, the periodical 
 excitement of a provincial city. All the children in 
 Norwich from the noisy urchins who throng the 
 streets, to the little curled darlings who are dressed 
 and taken out to witness the ceremonial of the 
 judges' arrival, or the procession of the municipal 
 authorities who escort the judicial dignitaries to the 
 cathedral were then, as now, delighted at the cere- 
 monial and the show, the bustle and the life of the 
 scene. Very few, probably, ever think deeply re- 
 specting the people to be tried, or feel much curiosity 
 about the solemn proceedings of a court of justice ; 
 but the young Amelia, from a very early age, was 
 full of interest and excitement about the trials, 'and 
 was allowed to go not to the criminal trials, but 
 to the nisi prius court and hear the pleadings and 
 witness the proceedings, which she did with an 
 absorbed attention, making her own mental com- 
 ments, and finding her love of truth greatly shocked 
 by the contradictions, prevarications, and careless- 
 ness of witnesses. 
 
 The deep attention and intelligent look of this 
 young observer attracted the attention of many 
 eminent legal men; and, to her own surprise at 
 the time, and her amusement as she recalled it 
 in after-years, she was noticed and talked to by 
 learned judges, and her attendance was looked for 
 with indulgent interest. 
 
 She was from early childhood a remarkably good 
 
 G
 
 82 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 reader ; and it is probable, as the bar lias always 
 been considered a school of oratory, that this, in the 
 first place, both excited her attention and induced 
 her father to permit her to gratify her wish of 
 attending the trials. 
 
 Some years after, a near relative of hers became 
 one of our most eminent judges Baron Alderson 
 which must have been a great gratification to such 
 a lover of forensic eloquence and legal distinction 
 as was our heroine from her youth up. 
 
 Naturally, a young lady so much her own mistress 
 and so admired, mingling in the most fashionable 
 circles of a gay and wealthy city, would early 
 receive those attentions which some young girls 
 think the crowning distinction of early womanhood. 
 But with all her warmth of feeling and fancy, Miss 
 Alderson was not one of those young ladies who 
 think it inevitable that, as soon as they are grown 
 up, they should fall in love. She loved her father 
 so fondly that she wished to devote her life to him ; 
 and so her first youth passed away, and left her 
 
 " In maiden meditation 
 Fancy free." 
 
 She had paid many visits to London, and was 
 known as a writer of great promise before her heart 
 was troubled, or blessed, with any emotion that 
 equalled her filial love. 
 
 In the year 1781-2, there was in London an artist, 
 whose genius excited the utmost admiration, not 
 unmingled with surprise, named Opie, who had been
 
 AMELIA OPIE. 83 
 
 brought from his native Cornwall, where his youth- 
 ful genius had burst through all the impediments 
 of a humble station, a very limited education, and 
 a life of toil. Dr. Walcot, when visiting Cornwall, 
 saw some pictures by a self-taught artist which 
 ai'rested his attention. He was told the name, cir- 
 cumstances, and age of the painter, and he set off to 
 find him. Opie was working in a saw- pit, when he 
 was called out to answer the question, " Can you 
 paint ? " and the reply he gave was both rustic and 
 ready, " Oh, yes ; I can pe'aint a farmyard, and King 
 George." The interview ended in the youth accom- 
 panying Dr. Walcot to London, where, by diligent 
 study and ceaseless industry supplementing his 
 natural genius, he became not merely a rustic wonder 
 to be stared at, patronized, and then neglected by 
 aristocratic idlers, but a winner of a foremost place 
 among the most gifted artists of the age. 
 
 It was, however, in 1797, a great surprise to 
 many circles that the beautiful and gifted Amelia 
 Alderson should have accepted the man whom 
 Allan Cunningham calls an " inspired peasant." 
 She was gay, fond of and shining in society, and 
 visited in the highest circles. He was grave, fond 
 of retirement, rather eccentric in conversation, and 
 devoted to his noble art. In looks and manners, 
 they were a contrast to each other ; but some con- 
 trasts harmonize admirably. The solid worth and 
 true genius of Opie which had raised him to emi- 
 nence, won her esteem and regard, and her high
 
 84 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 estimate of a wife's duties made her in all respects 
 an admirable help-meet. 
 
 New duties and new trials both came to her, for 
 an artist's life often abounds in cares and reverses ; 
 and Opie, though an admired and successful painter, 
 was not without many anxieties, and had a hard 
 struggle for some years to keep the eminence he 
 had attained. 
 
 It was at this time that Mrs. Opie's pen was most 
 active, and she wrote some stories that were greatly 
 estimated for their moral excellence and literary 
 beauty. She displayed a great knowledge of the 
 human the female heart, its strength and its 
 weakness; and the tenderness of her own nature 
 made her excel in pathetic descriptions. 
 
 "Father and Daughter/' and "Tales of the Heart," 
 have retained their place among the purest works of 
 fiction ; while her story, " White Lies," had a great 
 popularity, as useful to that large class of thought- 
 less young people who let their tongues run on, 
 without caring to be accurate in what they say, 
 doing often an immense amount of mischief by care- 
 lessly mixing up truth and falsehood, heedless of 
 consequences. Would that all would ponder those 
 capital lines of the Poet Laureate 
 
 " A lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies ; 
 A lie which is all a lie may be met and fought outright ; 
 But a lie which is part a truth is a harder matter to fight." 
 
 Nine years of happy wedded life ended in widow- 
 hood, and Mrs. Opie returned to her beloved father's
 
 AMELIA OPIE. 85 
 
 house and her native city as a permanent resident. 
 Dr. Alderson lived to a good old age, cheered by 
 the duteous attendance of his devoted daughter, 
 who at length was left, by his death, alone in the 
 world, a childless widow. 
 
 It was during her early widowhood that her mind 
 underwent a change on the most important of all 
 subjects vital religion. Hitherto she had lived, 
 as thousands of amiable people are content to do, 
 without any deep thought or faithful searchings of 
 heart, as to the real condition of her soul. Content 
 merely with a name to live, and not feeling herself 
 a sinner, and looking to Jesus as the only Saviour. 
 
 Ah, my dear young reader ! multitudes are satis- 
 fied to pass through .the daily round of their simple 
 duties, and think they have done all that is required 
 of them, if they are amiable and kindly, and avoid 
 all flagrant offences against the moral law. Lulled 
 by self-complacency into a sense of security, they 
 cast aside all serious thought, all salutary fear, as 
 to their spiritual state. The answer to the solemn 
 demand, " Give Me thy heart," has never been 
 made. Prayer has been merely a daily formula, 
 perhaps endeared by memories of childhood, or 
 sentimentally practised as a salutary habit. The 
 real supplicatory spirit, the intense yearning for 
 communion with God in Christ, as an ever-present 
 Guide, Saviour, and Comforter, has never been 
 realized. 
 
 In this important matter, a great change occurred
 
 86 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 in the experience of Mrs. Opie. She had been in- 
 timate from her youth with the family at Earlham 
 Hall. Elizabeth Fry, and one of her sisters, Pris- 
 cilla Gurney who seems to have been by all testi- 
 monies a true embodiment of spiritual and mental 
 excellence commended spiritual religion to her 
 conscience. Correspondence with them brought 
 serious subjects prominently before the mind of 
 Mrs. Opie, and the ministrations and letters of 
 Joseph John Gurney, led her to deep reflection on 
 religion. She left the Presbyterian (or Unitarian ?) 
 connection into which she had been born, and after 
 due indeed long deliberation united with the 
 Society of Friends. 
 
 The name of the section of the Church of Christ 
 with which she united, is very secondary to the fact 
 that she became a devout Christian ; and that one 
 of the first efforts of her awakened soul was to lead 
 her beloved father, as Apollos of old was led, into 
 the way of truth more perfectly. A prayer that 
 she wrote down on this subject is so beautiful that 
 I recommend it to my young readers : 
 
 " Thou, ' the .God that hearest prayer/ and, even 
 amidst innumerable choirs of angels for ever glorify- 
 ing Thee and hymning Thy praise; canst hearken to 
 the softest breathings of a supplicating and wretched 
 heart ; deign, Lord, to let the prayers of a child for 
 a beloved parent come up before Thee. In grateful 
 return for that life he gave me here, and which, 
 under Thy good providence, he has tenderly watched
 
 AMELIA OPIE. 87 
 
 over, and tried to render happy, enable me, Lord ! 
 to be the humble means of leading him to Thee. Oh, 
 let us thirst, and come together to the waters ; and 
 'buy wine and milk without money and without 
 price;' and grant, O Lord! that before we go 
 hence and are no more seen of men, our united voices 
 may ascend to Thee in praises and blessings ! Grant 
 that we may together call upon the name of Him 
 who has redeemed us by His most precious blood, 
 that in that blood our manifold sins may be washed 
 away." * 
 
 Mrs. Opie was ever charitable to the very utmost 
 of her means, but deepening religious convictions 
 gave a wider sphere and a wiser purpose to her 
 benevolence. Her loving heart seemed ever like a 
 temple of peace and hope, where all gentle and 
 generous thoughts prompted to deeds of benevolence 
 and mercy. 
 
 She made, in her later years, many excursions to 
 the Continent and to different portions of the United 
 Kingdom, kept up her literary intercourse and the 
 exercise of her pen, but thought it suitable to give 
 up writing fiction, a decision which tells more for 
 her honest fidelity to her convictions, than to the 
 clearness of her reasoning power. Such fiction as 
 she wrote was Truth exemplified principles em- 
 bodied and wrought out and thus brought home to 
 many minds not otherwise accessible. Multitudes 
 of writers of the most enlightened Christian convic- 
 * Life of Amelia Opie, by Lucy Brightwell.
 
 00 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 tions, in our time, wisely use the outward vehicle of 
 fiction to convey the deepest truths of social life, 
 and believe that imagination, like every good gift, 
 was bestowed to be used, and consecrated in its use. 
 However, let us honour a conscientious scruple in a 
 great writer, even though it hampered her powers 
 and impeded her influence. 
 
 Her age was beautiful and dignified. Every good 
 cause received her aid prominently the Anti-slavery 
 Society, and the advancement of education : nor 
 were the claims of the animal world neglected 
 man's faithful dumb companions and servants. In 
 a time when animal wrongs and sufferings were too 
 often ignored, she ever showed and taught mercy 
 as a Christian duty. 
 
 Thus, amid her many elevated pursuits the years 
 passed calmly on. She built a house for herself at 
 Norwich, on Castle Hill, close to the old fortress 
 she had known from earliest years, and amid the 
 scenes she loved. The inevitably painful experience 
 of advancing age that of the loss of early friends 
 tried her affectionate heart ; but she was so loving, 
 that she was sure to win love from a generation suc- 
 ceeding those with whom she had set out in life. 
 Miss Lucy Brightwell, her friend and biographer, 
 and others paid her the tender attention of friend- 
 ship as her infirmities increased. 
 
 She was last in London at the Great Exhibition 
 in 1851 ; and, in common with many noble spirits, 
 hailed the " rich dawn of an ampler day," in hope
 
 AMELIA OPIE. 89 
 
 that " fruitful strifes and rivalries of peace " would 
 hasten the coming of the time when men should 
 learn war no more. Sweet and holy anticipations ! 
 not as yet realized, but sure to come ; for the mouth 
 of the Lord hath spoken it. 
 
 Mrs. Opie had become lame, but otherwise time 
 had dealt gently with her. The beaming sweetness 
 of her countenance remained to testify of peace 
 within, and so, by gentle gradations, the end drew 
 near. But her dismissal was not to be without a 
 struggle. Her bodily sufferings for the last six 
 weeks were severe, but were borne with all the pious, 
 chastened resignation of a Christian. Amid great 
 pain and weakness, she said to her cousin, " All is 
 peace;" and afterwards to Mr. S. Gurney, "All is 
 mercy." Brief, yet comprehensive testimony, rich 
 in all the fulness of the gospel of Christ ! 
 
 On the 2nd of December, 1853, she closed her 
 long and valuable life, leaving not only her writings 
 to delight, but her example to instruct, her country- 
 women.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 SARAH MARTIN AND THE LAST DUCHESS 
 OF GORDON. 
 
 LOWLY AND LOFTY LESSONS. 
 
 " One in Christ." " Eich and poor meet together : the Lord is 
 the Maker of them all." 
 
 T must be a source of rejoicing to every 
 reflective mind that examples of devoted 
 lives may be selected from the most 
 widely different spheres of social life. 
 Faith in Christ, consecration of the 
 heart, and devotion to the work He gives 
 His faithful ones to do, is the strong bond of union 
 that links together the lowly and the lofty who are 
 His. Nor are we to suppose, as many young people 
 of the middle ranks are apt to do, that the path of 
 the rich and" noble is always comparatively smooth 
 when they are led to think of religion, and to resolve 
 to set out as spiritual pilgrims on the narrow way 
 that leads to life eternal. Often, in proportion to 
 the splendour of station is the amount of tempta-
 
 THE LAST DUCHESS OF CORC 
 MISS BRODIE REPROVED BY A UTTL
 
 SARAH HARTIU. 93 
 
 tion and hindrance. Loftiness of social position 
 is frequently a stern limitation to freedom of action. 
 
 Yet, as in all things the Christian can come off 
 conqueror through Him that helpeth him, many 
 examples are found in modern biography of women 
 whose social status has exhibited the greatest pos- 
 sible contrast, yet whose personal experience and 
 life-work have plainly shown the oneness of their 
 hope, and the true spiritual kinship of all believers. 
 
 I propose giving my young readers a brief sketch 
 of two lives, taken from entirely different classes of 
 society, each of which teaches them a most valuable 
 lesson for time and eternity. I select that noble 
 Christian lady, the last DUCHESS OP GORDON, and 
 the humble seamstress and pious philanthropist, 
 SARAH MARTIN, of Great Yarmouth. 
 
 I take the last first. In the early years of the 
 present century, a young girl might be seen at 
 Yarmouth going to and from her work as a dress- 
 maker's apprentice. There was nothing remarkable 
 in her appearance, except perhaps a look of keen 
 observation and intelligent thoughtfulness. She 
 was an orphan, and had been reared by an aged, 
 pious widow, her grandmother. Some schooling 
 . had been given her, and she was fond of reading 
 in a desultory way. 
 
 It is rather a curious fact in the mental history 
 of the orphan Sarah Martin, that she had a positive 
 dislike to religion and the books that inculcated it,
 
 94 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 the Bible especially. Many young people are in- 
 different, or mere formalists in the matter of religion ; 
 but I think very few indeed can charge themselves 
 with so strong a feeling as dislike. 
 
 At the time when Sarah Martin was a school-girl, 
 the Bible was often made a lesson or a punishment 
 book ; and but little was done to make its truths 
 attractive or clear to the minds of the young. 
 Pictorial aids, sweet narratives, poetic elucidations, 
 and interesting questions were rarely used never, 
 I may say, in the ordinary schools of the time ; so 
 that the Scriptures seemed like a sandy desert, and 
 young feet soon grew weary in traversing it. But 
 our gracious Lord does not leave Himself without a 
 witness, where there is a thinking mind. Frivolity 
 and the love of pleasure are the thorns that most 
 frequently choke the good seed of wisdom and 
 truth. 
 
 At the age of nineteen, Sarah heard a sermon that 
 impressed her, from the words : " Knowing the ter- 
 rors of the law, we persuade men." This was a ray 
 of light to her, but the dawn came slowly. It was 
 however a great matter that, with the growing light, 
 she was able to see herself as she was a sinner. 
 She began to read the Bible and examine for her- 
 self; but with at first no other result than great 
 self-condemnation, and some confusion of mind 
 from theological books. But as she beautifully says 
 in her simple memoir,* " Seeing salvation, not in 
 
 * Life of Sarah Martin, p. 9. Religious Tract Society.
 
 SARAH MAETIN. 95 
 
 its commencement only, but from first to last to be 
 entirely of grace, I was made free ; and looking 
 upon a once crucified, but now glorified Saviour, 
 with no more power of my own than the praying 
 thief had upon the cross, I also found peace." 
 
 This change of heart was followed, as, when real, 
 it ever is, by a change of life. She began not only 
 to search, but to love and rejoice in the Scriptures. 
 The Bible was the companion of her leisure hours, 
 and its precepts the guide of her actions. She was 
 conscious that her former hardness of heart and 
 dislike of religion had been a trial to the beloved 
 aged parent who had protected her orphan child- 
 hood ', and we can imagine the joy there was between 
 the widow and the orphan when they were one in 
 the faith and the hope of the gospel. 
 
 " Did you ever despair of my conversion ?" she 
 asked of her aged guardian. 
 
 " No ; I always prayed for you, my child," was 
 the reply. 
 
 Ah, dear readers, what constant, hallowed incense 
 of prayer is rising from loving hearts for many of 
 you ! Long ere you could pray for yourselves, long 
 after you have wilfully neglected prayer, the suppli- 
 cations have been and are continued. Think of it, 
 and give your pious kindred the greatest joy that 
 you can afford them, the sweet assurance that their 
 prayers are answered. 
 
 It was quite in accordance with the true spirit of 
 Christianity, that as soon as Sarah Martin's heart
 
 96 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 was right she should wish to be useful to others. 
 Christianity is an active principle swift, cheering, 
 and vivifying as light. 
 
 She began, as many of our best young people 
 begin to work for their Master, by teaching in the 
 Sunday School. Here she found ready access to 
 the hearts of the children of her class, and through 
 them to their parents. Some memorable conver- 
 sions through her instrumentality followed. 
 
 Then she had a strong desire to visit the poor in 
 the workhouse. Her wish was granted ; and here, 
 too, she had almost immediate evidence that she 
 was in the path of duty. District visitations, Bible 
 classes and readings, home missionary activities, are 
 all more modern plans of usefulness which existed 
 not then ; and the sight to the sick and aged poor 
 of a kind young face bending in pity over them, and 
 a gentle voice pleading with them and reading to 
 them, must have been as a revelation of Heaven to 
 many whose hold on earth had been painful and 
 wearisome. 
 
 In the workhouse, Sarah Martin's first work was 
 found. She did not confine her ministrations 
 merely to the aged and the sick. She very wisely 
 sought to do good to the children, then more likely 
 to be trained for crime than for anything else, in our 
 pauper houses. Any man who could read, and per- 
 haps write a little, was selected from among the 
 paupers as schoolmaster, irrespective of character 
 and fitness. Of three, whom she in the course of
 
 SARAH MARTIN. 97 
 
 years came in contact with at the workhouse, two 
 were drunkards, and one was a thief ! With her 
 clear mind and sympathising heart, she pitied both 
 the teachers and the taught, and strove, not in vain, 
 to do them all good. 
 
 But her special life-work commenced in 1819, 
 when she was about twenty-six years of age. She 
 then gained admission to the prison. Here her' 
 plans were most practical. She set herself to shut 
 out indolence, that seducer to crime, and her skill 
 as a seamstress gave her great help in teaching the 
 women and girls. She learned straw-plaiting and 
 the making of bread seals, much used then, and 
 some other occupations, so as to instruct the men 
 in the prison. She knew that all reformation is but 
 transitory that does not touch the heart and give 
 some light to the soul ; so in much diffidence, yet 
 with devout resolution, she began to give some 
 religious instruction. She read the Scriptures on the 
 Sunday, and taught and encouraged the prisoners 
 to read, and instituted and conducted for them a 
 devotional service, there being there then no gaol 
 chaplain. 
 
 Meanwhile, of course her business, on which she 
 depended for bread, suffered. She gave up one 
 entire working day in the week to teaching in- 
 dustrial pursuits in the prison. A lady paid her 
 for another day, as if she were at work at dress- 
 making, so that she might devote herself more 
 fully to these waifs and strays of humanity. Then 
 
 H
 
 98 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 she set on foot plans to preserve the prisoners, on 
 their release, from the temptations of drunkenness 
 and idleness, and was the means of reclaiming 
 many from the ranks of crime to tread the path of 
 honesty. 
 
 The Sabbath day of course was hers to spend, as 
 the Lord appointed, in doing good to the souls of 
 men. In her case we see what a blessed institu- 
 tion the Lord's-day is ; how it affords to the world- 
 weary and the criminal a means of spiritual refresh- 
 ment and enlightenment; how the Christian, who 
 has to toil for the bread that perisheth, may on this 
 day break the bread of life, and rescue, from the 
 hard grip of worldly business, time to do and to 
 get good. Oh, dear young reader, cherish your 
 Sabbaths ! 
 
 Twenty-three years of continued usefulness were 
 permitted to this devoted woman. For the first 
 half of these her services were unnoticed by any of 
 the influential of the earth. She did them to the 
 Lord that was enough for her. Fees, reward, or 
 praise, she never sought. Of course she had the 
 iuward recompense of an approving conscience; 
 and the sweet tribute came to her of the tear of 
 repentance, the smile of humble gratitude, and the 
 blessing of those who were ready to perish. 
 
 But at length public sympathy was aroused. 
 Inspectors of prisons and town councillors were 
 startled into attention to her methods of reforma- 
 tion. The prison and its inmates were so altered,
 
 SAEAH MAKTJN. 99 
 
 they could not but notice it. Her simple history 
 and humble means became known and honoured. 
 She was compelled reluctantly on her part to 
 receive some acknowledgment, and the sum of 
 twelve pounds a year was forced on her acceptance, 
 which, with the interest of some three hundred 
 pounds that she inherited on her grandmother's 
 death, comprised her means of livelihood. 
 
 Very touching and sweet were the little addresses 
 which she composed for the prisoners, and also 
 for the workhouse children. Always warm from 
 the heart, and vital with her own experience, were 
 her teachings, and that made her so successful in 
 winning souls from Satan's dominion. 
 
 Never of robust health, her constitution became 
 seriously impaired; and from April, 1843, to the 
 October of that year, she became the tenant of 
 a sick room, prostrated by a painful illness, from 
 which, after much suffering, she was released by 
 death. Her pen, during intervals of her pain, was 
 used when she could no longer speak to those for 
 whom she had laboured ; she wrote affectionately 
 to them, and one address she prepared to be read 
 to them the Sunday after her death. 
 
 Her own summary is the best close to this sketch : 
 "In the absence of all human sufficiency on my 
 part, whether of money or influence or experience, 
 it is plain that God alone inclined my heart, in- 
 structed me by His Word, and carried me forward 
 in hope and peace. Hence arises the boundless
 
 100 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 encouragement which it presents to others ; for the 
 most humble individual may, in any department of 
 the providence of God, build on the promises as 
 firm as eternity. ' Whatever ye shall ask in my 
 name, that will I do.' Yes ; for grace will prompt 
 the prayer, and make it in accordance with the 
 Divine mind and will." 
 
 We are differently led j and such a work as Sarah 
 Martin did is not appointed to many ; but all 
 workers in the Lord's vineyard can emulate her 
 self-sacrifice, her diligence, her faith, her love, and 
 thus live blessing and blessed. 
 
 ELIZABETH, DUCHESS OF GORDON, 
 
 was descended from the noble Scottish family 
 of Brodie. Her mother died when she was six 
 years of age. Two maiden aunts at Elgin then 
 took charge of her, and though motherless, she 
 had a happy, healthy, mirthful childhood. She 
 was removed for education to a boarding-school 
 near London ; and without anything in her career 
 aut of the ordinary course of a young lady of her 
 rank, she made progress in all that she was taught, 
 and grew up dignified in person and graceful in 
 manners. 
 
 Her father seems to have been careful to instil
 
 ELIZABETH, DUCHESS OP GORDON. lOl 
 
 humility into her mind; and she seems always to 
 have, remembered, as well as recorded in her 
 journal, his saying, " If I did all I ought to do, I 
 should still be an unprofitable servant." 
 
 At nineteen, Miss Brodie was introduced into 
 society, and was speedily much admired. She 
 seems to have mingled with a gay circle, who 
 thought that, if they gave a sort of patronage to 
 religion by attendance at church in the morning, 
 they might spend the evening in pleasure even 
 at cards ! A reproof that sank deep came to this 
 young lady from a very unexpected quarter. She 
 was very fond of children, and a beautiful child 
 of three or four years old being in the house she 
 was visiting, she amused herself by playing with 
 the little creature and winning its love. One day, 
 however, when she called to her little playfellow, the 
 child would not come, but turned away, saying, 
 " No ; you are bad you play cards on Sunday." 
 Struck to the heart by this admonition, she replied 
 sadly, " I was wrong ; I will not do it again ; " 
 and she resolutely kept her word. Who can say 
 but that one little seed of truth, wafted on an 
 infant's breath, sunk deep into the recesses of her 
 mind to spring up vigorously in after-days. 
 
 In 1813, she married the Marquis of Huntly, 
 and for many years her life resembled that of 
 other merely fashionable people. She was not 
 blessed with children ; and she, and her lord, who 
 was many years her senior, travelled much on the
 
 102 WOMEN WOKTH EMULATING, 
 
 Continent, and saw the brilliant life of many great 
 cities, as well as that of London and Edinburgh. 
 
 This lady lived to record that her career was un- 
 profitable and idle. She was not happy in this state. 
 There was a latent perception that life was given 
 for a higher purpose than dressing and visiting, 
 laughing and talking that under the thin veil of 
 pleasure there lurked selfishness and vice and 
 her moral sense was aroused. In her distress, she 
 sought refuge in her Bible, that fortress for the 
 weary soul that asylum for the sin-sick spirit. 
 The Scriptures soon became to her what they are 
 to every earnest student a guide through the 
 labyrinth of the world. 
 
 One day she was found by gay companions read- 
 ing the Bible, and they ventured to ridicule her, 
 and spread a report that the Marchioness of Huntly 
 had turned Methodist. The weapon of ridicule, 
 while it alarms the weak, is often a useful goad to 
 arouse the strong. Lady Huntly was not a person 
 to be laughed out of her convictions. More than 
 ever she resolved to persevere in a new endeavour 
 to attain a higher life than she had yet lived, and 
 grace was given her to begin to work for God and 
 man with a zeal that never wearied. 
 
 At Kimbolton Castle her entire change in the 
 mode of employing her time was first known among 
 her circle. Lady Olivia Sparrow, of pious memory, 
 became her friend, and some few like-minded 
 women of rank were her companions.
 
 ELIZABETH, DUCHESS OF GORDON. 103 
 
 In 1827, the old Duke of Gordon died, and Lord 
 and Lady Huntly came from Geneva to take posses- 
 sion of Gordon Castle. Lady Huntly was thirty- 
 three years of age when she became Duchess of 
 Gordon. Her distinguished rank only deepened 
 her sense of responsibility. She had felt the 
 burden of sin, and the sweet sense of release from 
 that burden by being enabled to cast it off at the 
 feet of Jesus; and nothing was stronger, as a. dis- 
 tinct purpose with her, than to live by faith and 
 prayer a life of usefulness. With- this purpose kept 
 steadily in view, her coronet did not so much 
 ennoble her, as she added a lustre to it. 
 
 Of course she had her difficulties and seasons of 
 depression, for her piety was likely to be misunder- 
 stood and misrepresented. Once, when somewhat 
 low-spirited, it is recorded in her life, she was 
 visiting a ruined old castle on the Gordon estates, 
 and saw some stone letters over a fire-place that 
 none of the company could read. She pensively 
 lingered after the rest, when on a sudden a sunbeam 
 streamed through the hall, and she read in its light 
 the words taken from an old version of the Bible : 
 
 " To THAES THAT LOVE GoD ALL THINGS ViRKIS TO 
 
 THE BEST." She recorded, " It was a message from 
 the Lord to my soul, and came to me with such 
 power that I went on my way rejoicing."* 
 
 She resolved, as far as lay within her own pro- 
 
 * Life of the last Duchess of Gordon. By Kev. A. Moody 
 Stuart.
 
 101 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 vince, to regulate her house in the fear of the Lord. 
 Her discretion and sweetness prevented her pious 
 plans from annoying the duke, who did not then 
 see as she saw ; but instead of his being estranged, 
 his affections were increased, for he knew that lofty 
 principle guided her actions. When calamities 
 came as a fire that destroyed one wing of Gordon 
 Castle, and a great flood that not only devastated 
 the duke's property but injured his poorer tenantry 
 he said in his grief, " I have been unfortunate in 
 everything except a good wife." 
 
 The establishment of schools on her estate was 
 the first work of benevolence on which the duchess 
 entered. In these she took deep interest, visiting 
 them herself and questioning the children, the 
 infant school especially. A pretty incident is re- 
 corded of a visit once made to the latter. She took 
 a bright little boy on her lap, and put the question 
 to the children who gathered round her knees, 
 " What does Jesus mean where He says, ( Except 
 ye become as little children, ye shall not enter into 
 the kingdom of heaven ? '" Nothing is harder some- 
 times (even to far elder folks than were listening 
 to the duchess) than a definition, and therefore it is 
 not surprising that she failed to get an answer. 
 Turning to the child on her lap, she repeated the 
 question ; and he said, " A little child kens (knows) 
 that it can do naething its lane " (alone, or of itself) . 
 It certainly was a beautiful exposition, never to be 
 forgotten by the noble lady who once again heard
 
 ELIZABETH, DUCHESS OP GORDON. 105 
 
 from the lips of a child a blessed truth : " Out of 
 the mouth of babes and sucklings He perfecteth 
 praise." 
 
 The losses of property recorded, rather limited the 
 Duchess of Gordon's liberality ; and her visitations 
 and benefactions to the poor, her schools, and other 
 charities taxed her personal resources to their full 
 extent. In the spring of 1835, while the family 
 were out at dinner, her jewel chest was stolen from 
 their town house in Belgrave Square. Scarcely 
 any but the plainest of her ornaments was left her. 
 Her comment on this was, " My treasure is where 
 thieves do not break through and steal.'" 
 
 Queen Adelaide, who was a personal friend, sym- 
 pathising in her loss, sent her a handsome present 
 of her own favourite jewels a gift valued for the 
 spirit of the giver, more than for any other worth. 
 
 In 1836, the Duchess of Gordon became a widow. 
 She had the inexpressible satisfaction of seeing that 
 change of heart in her beloved husband which is 
 the Christian's greatest consolation in bereavement. 
 Her faithfulness was thus recompensed, and her 
 deep sorrow sanctified. 
 
 Removing to her dower house, Huntly Lodge, 
 henceforth her life and fortune were devoted to 
 extending the Saviour's kingdom. Her work in 
 founding schools was followed by building places of 
 worship. To this end, when she had not money to 
 give, she devoted relics of former splendour. A 
 gold vase, worth 1,200 was so dedicated. Then,
 
 106 WOMEN WOBTH EMULATING. 
 
 in process of time, her jewels were again thus given. 
 In former years she had recorded, "The duke 
 allowed me to sell 000 worth of diamonds, quaintly 
 saying ' that stones were much prettier in a 
 chapel wall than around one's neck/ " 
 
 Now that she had no one to consult but her own 
 will, she cheerfully laid her ornaments on the altar 
 of benevolence and piety. 
 
 On the disruption of the Church of Scotland, on 
 the subject of State patronage, the Duchess of 
 Gordon took a most decided course. It is im- 
 possible to do anything like justice in this brief 
 sketch to so important a subject as the estab- 
 lishment of the Free Church of Scotland. It is 
 enough to record that, faithful to her convictions, 
 the Duchess of Gordon helped forward what she 
 believed to be the right. It was a trial a loss 
 to her to be obliged to differ from many whom 
 she loved and esteemed ; but we have seen enough 
 of her character to know that she would not 
 confer with flesh and blood, or be deterred by 
 any worldly considerations in treading what she 
 deemed the path of duty. Her course was resolute, 
 and her name will ever be venerated among those 
 faithful ministers of the Kirk, who were willing to 
 encounter the loss of all earthly benefits, so that 
 the purity of the Church, in their belief, might be 
 promoted. 
 
 Of course, for years there was turmoil and great 
 searchings of heart; but yet, living among her
 
 ELIZABETH, DUCHESS OP GORDON. 107 
 
 schools and cottages, and doing her works of kind- 
 liness, this honoured lady was kept in perfect peace. 
 
 A severe illness in January, 1861, from which 
 she recovered, was felt as a premonition of the end. 
 She diligently began from that time to set her 
 house in order ; comforting her heart by thinking 
 of others, and devising good to the hundreds of 
 children in her schools and to their parents. 
 
 Her last illness was rather sudden, and it does 
 not seem that she was aware of its alarming cha- 
 racter ; but her life had long been a preparation for 
 death. Holy living is what we should emulate, and 
 leave the dying testimony to shape itself as the 
 Lord directs. 
 
 On Sunday evening, the 31st of January, in her 
 seventieth year, she closed her eyes on this world, 
 to open them in the land of the blest ; realizing the 
 words of her favourite hymn, on the last words of 
 Rutherford : 
 
 "The sands of time are sinking; 
 
 The dawn of heaven breaks ; 
 The summer morn I've sighed for 
 
 The fair sweet morn, awakes. 
 Dark, dark, hath been the midnight, 
 
 But the dayspring is at hand; 
 And glory, glory dwelleth 
 
 In our Immanuel's land."
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 JANE AND ANNE TAYLOR 
 
 \ 
 
 HERE are two poems sweet 
 true poems, though written for 
 infant lips made, like the 
 flowers, to delight all minds, 
 and which are probably more fa- 
 miliar to millions of readers than any 
 other verses in our language. They 
 are " My mother/' by Anne Taylor; 
 and "Twinkle, twinkle, little star/' 
 by her sister Jane. 
 These sisters were members of a sweet, congenial, 
 united family, nearly unique in the annals of litera- 
 ture. They inherited from a line of ancestors, dis- 
 tinguished in a far nobler sense than by mere 
 worldly rank, acute and penetrating intellect, energy 
 and decision of character, accompanied by great 
 self-control and perseverance. These are the quali-
 
 MISSES JANE AND ANNE TAYLOR. 109 
 
 ties which, under the Divine blessing, lead to 
 eminence. 
 
 In the year 1781, a young married couple, aged 
 respectively 23 and 22, set up their first home in 
 lodgings at Islington. Their marriage dower con- 
 sisted of love and faith towards God and each other, 
 superior intelligence, and habits of industry and 
 frugality. Isaac Taylor, the husband, was an en- 
 graver, with no other certain income than half a 
 guinea a week for three days' work, weekly provided 
 for him by his elder brother, who was afterwards 
 known as " the learned editor of Calmet's Diction- 
 ary." This income, with thirty pounds in hand, 
 and a hundred pounds in stock possessed by Mrs. 
 Taylor, and furniture enough for their two pleasant 
 rooms, comprised their pecuniary means for start- 
 ing in life. Both these young people were endowed 
 with those distinctive qualities which we call a 
 character. Both were sincerely religious, showing 
 forth their principles in their daily life. 
 
 In January, L782, Anne, their gifted eldest child, 
 was born. A year and nine months after, September, 
 1 783, Jane, destined to be so well known and loved, 
 was added to the household. A removal had taken 
 place from what then was a rural suburb of London, 
 to Red Lion Street, Holborn, and here their first son, 
 who did not survive childhood, was given to them. 
 
 If the father had now to toil very hard to main- 
 tain his family, the mother's exertions were quite 
 as great. She never allowed herself any recreation,
 
 110 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 and might have broken down both her mind and 
 body in mere household drudgery, had not a friend 
 wisely and kindly advised her ever to strive to be her 
 husband's companion in higher things. This advice 
 she so firmly acted on that she commenced a practice 
 of reading aloud to him daily, which was of the 
 utmost mental benefit and pleasure not only to her- 
 self but to her young family. She became that rare 
 thing then and not too common now a good 
 reader, and exercised her mind on intellectual topics 
 suggested by her reading. 
 
 Some threatening of ill health, and the expense 
 of rearing a family in London, determined Mr. 
 Taylor to take a very resolute step, and remove 
 himself and family into the country. After many 
 inquiries, a spacious old-fashioned house and good 
 garden were found at Lavenham, in Suffolk, for six 
 pounds a year ! No such dwelling could be found 
 now for treble that price. Here, far from all 
 ordinary postal or coach communication, amid 
 humble, kindly, sensible neighbours, and in whole- 
 some retirement, began a system of domestic living 
 and home instruction for the children, which, 
 whether judged by its immediate or after results, 
 must be pronounced as admirable as it was un- 
 common. 
 
 Mr. Taylor, whose Christian zeal was most earnest, 
 set up a Sunday School for the poor children of the 
 place about the time when Mr. Eaikes of Glou- 
 cester began the great work there, which has led to
 
 MISSES JANE AND ANNE TAYLOR. Ill 
 
 such wonderful results. Sunday School work led 
 to his giving addresses, which were prized by the 
 parents and others ; and so, without intending any- 
 thing but Christian usefulness to his neighbours, 
 he almost unconsciously became a preacher of the 
 gospel. Evidently he was one of those called of 
 God, and led by a way he had not anticipated into 
 the, Christian ministry. 
 
 In 1848, Anne (then Mrs. Gilbert) wrote in the 
 Sunday School Magazine an account of her father's 
 beginning a Sabbath School sixty years previously. 
 
 Mrs. Taylor had with very great reluctance, 
 amounting to anguish, consented to the removal of 
 the family to the country. Soon the garden and 
 rural beauty around " won her heart." She lived 
 fully to assent to the words of one of her daughters, 
 that it was " a happy seclusion." Here the children, 
 the sisters especially, made their own amusements. 
 Jane asked to have a brick pig-sty (!) given to 
 her, which she cleared out for a house, and here the 
 study and the play of the two little girls went on 
 most joyfully. The finding out occupations for 
 themselves, and a certain independence in the 
 selection of pursuits, aided by great activity, made 
 them very happy children. 
 
 Mr. Taylor pursued his profession as an engraver, 
 having continuous employment from London, 
 which of course he had occasionally to visit. Except 
 at these absences, the children were the companions 
 of their parents; they listened to their mother's
 
 112 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 reading aloud, picked up subjects of thought and 
 conversation, and were thus being educated in the 
 best sense of intelligent yet deferential familiarity ; 
 good manners, kindly feelings, and useful arts were 
 all gained in that happy household. 
 
 The family had to mourn some losses of infant 
 members ; but one brother was born at Lavenham, 
 whose name holds an honoured place in the best 
 literature of this age : Isaac Taylor, the author of a 
 long list of most valuable and suggestive books. 
 
 The times between 1789 and 1795 were hard, in 
 every sense. Provisions were dear, taxation high, 
 labour ill remunerated, and persecution, both re- 
 ligious and political, rampant. In such a time the 
 fine arts could not flourish, nor could a Dissenter, 
 however mild and blameless his life, escape insult 
 and danger from an ignorant and excited populace. 
 
 Mr. Taylor had gained great mastery in his pro- 
 fession, and during some part of the time he resided 
 at Lavenham obtained large sums for his engrav- 
 ings, some of which became celebrated ; one in par- 
 ticular, from Opie's historical picture of the murder 
 of David Eizzio. 
 
 But troubles came. A dangerous illness brought 
 the dear father to the brink of the grave ; and the 
 anxious wife and mother, always of an extremely 
 sensitive, tender nature, was worn to a shadow by 
 her incessant cares, even though she knew better 
 than most where to go for strength. It is not pro- 
 mised that the Lord's people shall escape trials;
 
 MISSES JANE AND ANNE TAYLOE. 113 
 
 many of the very best have to struggle on "through 
 great tribulation." But help comes to them in the 
 struggle. Mr. Taylor recovered, and his ministra- 
 tions were so valued, that his spiritual teaching was 
 sought after and spoken of far beyond Lavenham. 
 The Independent Church at Colchester gave him 
 an invitation, which he accepted; the family leaving 
 their Lavenham home with sincere regret, but yet 
 as a call of duty. 
 
 Anne and Jane were respectively fourteen an-d 
 thirteen when they went to reside at Colchester. 
 Quiet, observant, graceful girls, very merry among 
 themselves, yet with those bashful, retiring man- 
 ners not so much seen now as in former times. 
 
 They had already begun to use their pens ; and 
 they neglected no opportunity of improvement 
 which came in their way among a more extended 
 circle of young friends; always being careful to form 
 friendships with the best companions. 
 
 In study, in a full share of household duties, in the 
 care arid teaching of their younger brothers, super- 
 intended in all things by their admirable parents, 
 their first years at Colchester were passed. One 
 indulgence they had which, in their own estimation, 
 they considered was a valuable aid in the formation 
 of their mental and spiritual characters a little 
 separate study for each. It might be, and was, but 
 a slip from an attic chamber, a lumber closet cleared 
 out, or a recess partitioned off; but each of the 
 girls and boys, as they could use it, had respectively 
 
 i
 
 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 this kind of retiring-place of their own. How much 
 of individuality and thoughtful habit was doubtless 
 promoted by this plan ! In " Home Education " * 
 this opportunity of seclusion is insisted on as most 
 essential to the growth of a reflective character. 
 
 During this time, as indeed always, Mrs. Taylor 
 may be called the governess, and her husband the 
 tutor, of the family. The latter, carefully reflecting 
 on the difficulties of the times, resolved to give his 
 daughters knowledge of an art by which they could 
 gain their own living if he were taken from them. 
 So, in 1797, when Anne was sixteen, the father 
 brought the girls into his workshop (studio we 
 should now call it) and taught them drawing and 
 engraving. Art education for girls was then not 
 thought of ; but the father in this household was 
 a man beyond his age in many things, and his 
 gifted daughters amply recompensed by their pro- 
 gress the pains he took with them. 
 
 No apprentices could work more continuously 
 than did Anne and Jane with their graving tools 
 and etching needles. They had an hour for dinner, 
 half an hour for tea, and when the evening hour of 
 release came, and they were free to follow their own 
 pursuits, the time seemed so short which they had 
 for reading or composition, that they acquired, 
 during all that time of year when daylight aided 
 them, the valuable habit of early rising. 
 
 The faculty of verse was soon manifested by both 
 * By Isaac Taylor.
 
 MISSES JANE AND ANNE TAYLOR. 115 
 
 sisters, and greatly delighted in by them ; but the 
 higher gift of poetic feeling and perception of the 
 beautiful in nature, in human life, and in art, was 
 also theirs. Anne was the first that ventured into 
 print; some stanzas in "The Minor's Pocket Book" 
 induced her to attempt something of the kind. A 
 prize of six copies of the work was offered for some 
 rhymed solutions of enigma or charade. She wrote 
 what was required, under the name of " Juvenilia/' 
 and had the joy a secret pleasure then to find she 
 was successful. To this little work she continued 
 to contribute for some years, afterwards became 
 its editor, and only gave it up on her marriage. 
 
 Children's books were then very rare, and very 
 poorly executed. Dr. Watts seemed to have no 
 successor in teaching great truths in simple lan- 
 guage to the young. Messrs. Darton and Harvey 
 were then the publishers of children's books, and 
 the writings of " Juvenilia/' and afterwards of the 
 same contributor under the name of " Clara," 
 attracted their attention. Some plates for their 
 juvenile works were executed by the sisters Anne 
 and Jane, and an offer was made them, in 1800, to 
 exercise their talents in writing for the young. 
 
 Never were youthful aspirants more fitted for the 
 sweet and important work of giving instruction to 
 the opening mind. They had feeling, fancy, tender- 
 ness, piety ; and thus the joint work began, which, 
 as "Original Poems for Infant Minds," was to enjoy 
 such a well-deserved popularity, and to remain
 
 116 WOMEN WOIiTH EMULATING. 
 
 unsurpassed, after three-quarters of a century emi- 
 nent for its literary activity and excellence. 
 
 It is characteristic that the sisters though well 
 knowing, by its want, the worth of money were 
 comparatively indifferent to pecuniary recompense. 
 The delight of composition, the joy of finding they 
 were doing good to the young, and the approval of 
 many contemporaries, whose name and fame they 
 had admired, without ever thinking they should know 
 and be known by them, was a priceless recompense. 
 
 The " Hymns for Infant Minds " was a still 
 higher effort of genius. Recognised as among the 
 best writers for the young, from the time of its 
 publication and great success, constant literary work 
 was engaged in by both the sisters. It was a 
 beautiful trait that each esteemed the other better 
 than herself. No such feeling as rivalry was at 
 all possible in such lovely natures, so elevated by 
 grace and truth. Somehow, the world was led to 
 ascribe rather the higher attributes to Jane. It 
 arose from their supposing many of her sister's best 
 poems to be hers. But in a careful analysis it 
 would be very difficult and surely where each is 
 so excellent, needless to assign any superiority. 
 The elder was permitted to live out a long and 
 most complete life ; the younger died in the zenith 
 of her power ; and it may be that the loving reve- 
 rence, both of relatives and readers, so hallowed her 
 memory, that the survivor, for a time, was over- 
 shadowed by the radiance of her fame.
 
 MISSES JANE AND ANNE TAYLOE. 119 
 
 Both sisters wrote clear, graphic, elegant prose, 
 as well as poetry. Jane's "Contributions of Q.Q.," 
 and her story of "Display/ 1 and other writings, 
 prove her skill. But Anne was a journalist and a 
 reviewer. She wrote for The Eclectic in its palmy 
 days, when some of the leading minds among our 
 great men as Revs. John Foster and Robert Hall 
 were contributors. It was not until the recent 
 publication of Mrs. Gilbert's Life, one of the most 
 interesting biographies of our time, prolific as it is 
 in this department of writing, that her real genius 
 was known. 
 
 Removal to Ongar, in Essex, and the residence 
 there during the last eighteen years of their father's 
 life, has caused people to speak of the household as 
 if Ongar was the only locality associated with their 
 celebrity. It certainly was a very dear and memo- 
 rable residence to them all, consecrated both by life 
 and death. 
 
 On December 24, 1813, Miss Anne Taylor was 
 married to the Rev. J. Gilbert, then the classical 
 tutor at Rotherham College ; and for some years 
 after, though her literary pursuits were never en- 
 tirely relinquished, the cares of a rapidly-increasing 
 and large family demanded her attention, and she 
 proved to them and to their father, a tender 
 guide, instructress, helper, companion, friend the 
 same inestimable wife and mother that her own 
 early home had possessed. At Rotherham, at Hull, 
 and finally at Nottingham, she was the centre of a
 
 J20 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 household that emulated and inherited her virtues, 
 and of a wider circle that loved and honoured her. 
 
 Jane was for some years after her sister's marriage 
 more closely associated with her beloved brother 
 Isaac, and the most tender friendship subsisted be- 
 tween them. As Isaac's health was delicate, and 
 the youngest child of the family at Ongar was a 
 daughter, Jemima, who became the devoted attend- 
 ant on her mother, Jane went with her brother to 
 Devon and to Cornwall. At Marazion, in Mount's 
 Bay, many of Jane's later works were written ; and 
 it was no small comfort to the good father in his 
 declining years, and to the mother, as delicacy of 
 health, increased by her deafness, pressed on her, 
 that Jane was realizing an independence by her 
 writings. 
 
 It is strange to read that although their father 
 wished to make his daughters artists, he at first 
 shrunk from their being engaged in literature. " I 
 have no wish that my daughters should be authors," 
 he had said, when their honourable career was first 
 opening before them. He lived to retract that 
 wish ; for not only his daughters, but his wife, when 
 released by years from the pressure of domestic 
 cares, became a very successful writer on domestic 
 and educational subjects. Her pen was the solace 
 to Mrs. Taylor's infirmities ; and the substitute for 
 the companionship of her children, as they had to 
 leave the " old house at home." 
 
 In the year 1823, Miss Jane Taylor's health began
 
 MISSES JA.NE AND ANNE TAYLOK. 121 
 
 to fail. She had symptoms of a painful malady; 
 but her patience and hopefulness prevented her 
 family for a long time from thinking her case so 
 serious as it was. Her brother Isaac was to her 
 the same devoted friend that she had, during his 
 illness, been to him. After trial of other places, in 
 search of health, Jane returned to Ongar ; and, as 
 her strength declined, it was her beloved brother 
 who carried her up and down stairs, and tried by 
 every means, aided by the solicitude of the tenderest 
 parents, to cheer the sufferer. And she was cheered; 
 for heavenly support was given her, and her mind 
 was stayed in perfect peace. 
 
 The decline was so gradual, that the end was 
 rather sudden. She herself was the first to an- 
 nounce the change she felt. On the 13th of April, 
 1824, she cheerfully said, e< Put me on a clean cap, 
 and set the room to rights, for I am going." In 
 answer to an inquiry of her father's, she said, 
 in a firm voice, " Though I walk through the 
 valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil ; " 
 and then lay quite still. About a quarter of an 
 hour before her death, her youngest brother, 
 Jeffrey, asked her if she felt any pain. She 
 replied, " No, dear ; only a little sleepy ; " and 
 soon after, with one long sigh, she died * to the 
 deep grief and loss of her parents and family to 
 her own eternal gain. 
 
 * Autobiography and other Memorials of Mrs. Gilbert, 
 vol. ii. p. 49.
 
 122 WOMEN WORTH EMULATING. 
 
 One shrinks from thinking what the grief of 
 such parents must have been for such a daughter. 
 But they were true Christians, and therefore their 
 consolations were not few nor small. 
 
 Not quite five years after this loss, the family 
 were bereaved of their beloved father. He was, 
 notwithstanding several attacks of illness, full of 
 mental vigour to the last. He died suddenly, on 
 December 12th, 1829. His wife his other self 
 did not linger long after him. In five months her 
 spirit was released from the fetters of the body, 
 and went to join her husband in praising that dear 
 Redeemer in heaven, whom they had so long 
 devoutly loved and followed on earth. 
 
 Mrs. Gilbert, as before stated, lived what may be 
 called a complete life. She sustained every rela- 
 tionship and responsibility daughter, sister, wife, 
 mother, widow, friend excellent in all. She 
 retained her youthful feelings and cheerful sympa- 
 thies to the age of eighty-four. Her latest writings 
 showed no abatement of mental power, while her 
 noble mind, enlarged by her greater experience, 
 hailed every sign of progress in female education, 
 in social and political reforms. She was not visited 
 by any severe illness, nor, except a slight deafness, 
 with any infirmity. Still she was ready ; her lamp 
 ever burning, and her spirit waiting for her 
 Saviour's call. 
 
 She wrote up her diary, had settled all her 
 yearly accounts, for Christmas was approaching;
 
 MISSES JANE AND ANNE TAYLOR. 123 
 
 and with a smile, kissing her daughter twice, 
 saying, first " That's for ' thank you ; ' " and then 
 again " and that's for ' good-night/ " she retired 
 to rest. 
 
 The next morning, the family could not rouse 
 her. She slept gently on still slept. The day wore 
 on to night, and still she gently slept ; once there 
 dawned a slight shadow of a smile then the 
 breathing was a little heavier and then, with a 
 single sigh, the land of clouds and death was left 
 for that of light and life, on December 20th, 1866. 
 
 " Oh ! not 'tilt brittle walls, 
 
 ' Till life's gay glittering show, 
 'Till each in ruin falls, 
 
 Shall the freed spirit know 
 
 Its growth, its strength, its native skies. 
 
 Poor captive soul, awake, arise 1 " 
 
 Butler &. Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London.
 
 University of California 
 
 SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 Return this material to the library 
 
 from which it was borrowed. 
 
 JUN 24
 
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