The mouth, too, is occasionally married; the chin not so often. Some of the most haughty, cold, equable, staid, indifferent, selfish creatures in the world are wives; and some of the noblest women are spinsters. _CHARACTER OF MISS SIEVEKING._ In stature Miss Sieveking scarcely reached the middle size; was sparely made; mercurial in all her motions; and very short-sighted. There was nothing remarkable in the head or forehead. Her figure was easily recognised from a distance, as she hurried along the streets, generally with a heavy basket of books and papers. Never arrogant in her dress, she was always neat and clean; cared little for fashion or elegance, and believed firmly that freedom consisted in having few wants. She was not handsome or graceful, in the ordinary sense of the words; and never wasted time over her toilet. Mentally Miss Sieveking was simply a woman of good sense, conversant with tangibilities; but singularly ill fitted to calculate regarding the invisible elements of power by which the tangible and the material are moved and governed. She was not in any respect a genius; but eminently a matter-of-fact woman. Her knowledge of the human heart was profound, but her insight into individual character was not remarkable. She was, however, right in believing that most women underrate their own powers; and that besides discharging the duties which the conjugal and filial relations bring with them, they would do well to develope a different kind of activity, in schools, churches, and charitable societies. Her character morally was of a high order. Few persons are so exactly what they profess to be as she was. Once she fell asleep in church, and when her brother charged her with it, denied it out of shame: but she could get no peace until she acknowledged the fact. In her conscientiousness and self-control, the earnestness which she carried into the smallest matters, the diligence with which she followed every good work, her severity towards herself and mildness towards others,—she may serve as a pattern to her sex. The great idea of compassionate and ministering love which was embodied in the life and work of Amelia Sieveking, is an idea which can and will set woman free—not from the restraints of law and custom, not from her vocation of quiet retirement and domestic virtue, but from the dominion of vanity, of false appearances, and of self-love. Naturally impetuous and impatient, at times sharp and abrupt, and prone to carry out her own will, she might have turned all her faculties to bad account. But by careful moral culture she built up a noble character, and in the language of her biographer, “Hamburg accounted it an honour and a joy to call Amelia Sieveking her own.” CHAPTER V. Literary Women. _SECTION I.—HANNAH MORE._