True, that at their holiest shrine, In their hours of greatest good, Comes to them a voice divine, Of a sweeter womanhood? It may be--how can _I_ tell Who, outside the garden wall, Only hear the convent bell. Only see the shadows fall? MARY LOWE DICKINSON. ENGLISH WOMEN. The consideration of the interesting subject which I now take up is not new to me. Long ago I found myself thinking about it when occasion to do so presented itself; and in this I was helped by the views of English society presented in the literature of the day, some of the most interesting studies of which are furnished in the novels written by Englishwomen. Indeed, the whole subject of English life and character has long been of the profoundest interest to me; and a recent visit to England is rather the occasion than the cause of much of what I shall write upon it. To say this is due to myself if not to my readers.[1] [1] My article in the April number of "The Galaxy" happened to be sent in without a title; and in hastily adding that with which it appeared both the editor and myself forgot for the moment that it was the title of Mr. Emerson's well-known book. My silent adoption of it was an unintentional violation of courtesy which I regret. One day a lady whom I had had the pleasure of taking in to dinner in a country house near London, and whom I had soon found to be one of those simple-minded, good-natured, truth-telling women who are notably common in England, spoke to me about some ladies who on a previous day had attracted her attention, adding, "I knew they were Americans." "How?" I asked. "Oh, we always know American women!" "But how, pray?" She thought a moment, and answered: "By their beauty--they are almost always pretty, if not more--by their fine complexions, and by their exquisite dress." I did not tell her that I thought that she was right; but that she was so I had by that time become convinced. And yet I should say that the most beautiful women I had ever seen were Englishwomen, were it not for the memory of a Frenchwoman, a German, and a Czech. But the latter three were rare exceptions. Beauty is very much commoner among women of the English race than among those of any other with which I am acquainted; and among that race it is commoner in "America" than in England. I saw more beauty of face and figure at the first two receptions which I attended after my return than I had found among the hundreds of thousands of women whom I had seen in England.