Her mother, a low-minded creature, was actually jealous of her, and could not endure the idea that her daughter should know any thing of which she herself was ignorant. She constantly insulted and depressed her. Her father, a proud consequential man, had some talents. But let us pause. The lady has herself told all these things of herself, of her mother and father also, though under the ingenious veil of fictitious names and characters. We shall therefore satisfy ourselves by the recapitulation of a few things, which she has not related of herself. In the first place, her persevering industry and determination to obtain somewhat of scientific accomplishments, was, in her early youth, beyond all example. No obstacles intimidated her, no interruptions relaxed her ardour, no unkindness turned her from her purpose. She would read by the scanty and pernicious light of dying embers; she would submit to the most serious privations; she would alike defy cold, and heat, and hunger, and thirst, in pursuit of her object; and she (as she deserved to do) obtained it. She qualified herself in case of accident or misfortune, though she had no reasonable grounds for expecting the necessity to operate, to obtain the means of livelihood, either as a teacher of others, or as a translator and author. She actually did, when in her father’s house, without the knowledge of her parents, undertake a work for a bookseller, and successfully performed it; by which she obtained a sum of money sufficiently large to procure some indulgence she had in view, either of learning German, or of purchasing books, or something of the kind, which might extend her knowledge, and improve her mind. Since she became her own mistress, independent, end opulent, the same habits of diligence have remained; a certain portion of every day is now, as before, regularly allotted for a particular study and employment. These habits are perhaps (or were) characterised by a precision, convenient undoubtedly to herself, but in a certain degree offensive and troublesome to such of her inmates, as may not, like herself, happen to move with the regularity of a watch. The anticipation or delay of five minutes before or after the time precisely fixed for any particular object, was wont to occasion a feverish irritability, and discompose the whole mental machine for a long interval.