trifles of the desultory kind, when they have odd half hours to bestow on literary amusements. But her strong and indefatigable mind never loosened its grasp; ever intent on the useful and the noble, she found little leisure for what are indeed the greatest objects of feeble characters. After the middle of life she went little out; her household, long since arranged by certain general rules, went regularly on, because every domestic knew exactly the duties of his or her place, and dreaded losing it, as the greatest possible misfortune. She had always with her some young person, who was unto her as a daughter—who was her friend and companion, and bred up in such a manner as to qualify her for being such; and one of whose duties it was to inspect the state of the household, and “report progress” with regard to the operations going on in the various departments; for no one better understood or more justly estimated the duties of housewifery. Thus, those young females who had the happiness of being bred under her auspices, very soon became qualified to assist her instead of encroaching much on her time. The example and conversation of the family in which they lived, was to them a perpetual school for useful knowledge, and manners easy and dignified, though natural and artless. They were not indeed embellished, but then they were not deformed by affectation, pretensions, or defective imitation of fashionable models of nature. They were not indeed bred up “to dance, to dress, to roll the eye, or troll the tongue;” yet they were not lectured into unnatural gravity or frozen reserve. I have seen those of them who were lovely, gay and animated, though in the words of an old familiar lyric, “Without disguise or art, like flowers they grace the wild, Their sweets they did impart, whene’er they spoke or smil’d.” Two of those to whom this description particularly applies, still live, and still retain not only evident traces of beauty, but that unstudied grace and dignity which is the result of conscious worth and honour, habituated to receive the tribute of general respect. This is the privilege of minds which are always in their own place, and neither stoop to solicit applause from their inferiors, nor strive to rise to a fancied equality with those whom nature or fortune have placed beyond them.