years of age, seated on her little wooden stool, on which she was obliged to sit very upright, by the side of her father's arm-chaireven then an object of attention and interest to many of the most eminent literary men of the day. We are told of the Abbé Raynal taking both her little hands in his, and conversing with her as if she had been five-and-twenty. At dinner, she sat with attention, and though she uttered not a word, she almost seemed to speak in her turn-all her flexible features displaying so much expression, her eyes following the looks and motions of those who spoke, and seeming to seize their ideas before she heard them. How finely has it been said of her in after-life, in the full and matured season of her intellectual vigor, that, "because she felt with enthusiasm, she penetrated with sagacity; because her heart beat high with zeal, her imagination glowed with fervor. No one was less fickle in her friendships-full of enthusiasm, she was yet constant-prone to vehement feelings, she was without violence, either of temper or disposition! All was noble and generous, to her to her very faults. Nothing mean or paltry belonged to her understanding or her heart. But the predominant feeling of her soul was filial love-her father had ever been her most confidential and attached friend, from whom she had no thought or feeling of her heart concealed, and devotion to him through life, and tender veneration for his memory, seemed to occupy her whole mind when she lost him; and she in her turn was cherished with the same ardent affection by her own children!" Such was Madame de Stael! pure We turn to a far lovelier subject when we speak of Madame de Broglie. Yes, while we turn away dazzled by the brilliancy of the one character, the heart loves to rest its gaze upon the and gentle lustre of the other. We bring forward the character, the conduct, the whole course of this modest and Christian woman-her plainspoken godly decision, her lowliness of mind, the admirable consist ency of her walk, the powerful influence of her example, in the very highest circles both of rank and literature; and we entreat the gentlewomen of our land to consider, and to weigh the value of such a character. The death of her mother seems to have deepened the character of her piety, though from her earliest childhood we are told that she never remembered the time when she did not love God. "One of the earliest recollections I have," she said, "was that of repeating on my knees, at my mother's side, the Lord's prayer." She was placed by Madame de Stael, at a very early period, under the late excellent Mr. Cellerier, of Geneva, who came to Coppet several times a week, to instruct her and her brother in the holy Bible: "and from my earliest years," she continues, "I took delight in reading the Scriptures, and committing myself to my Saviour." Much of the daughter's superiority may be attributed to the admirable system of the mother, and the wise and enlightened views which she took in those days of false systems of education-the way in which she inculcated implicit obedience from the child to the parent-her utter abhorrence of every kind of artifice and affectation-and the good plain sense which she showed in all the management of her children. "She raised them," says Madame Necker de Saussure, "to the level of her own mind, and herself to the level of their innocence." She seems to have united in her system the most perfect confidence with the most dignified reserve. "Never was a mother more open," said Madame de Broglie, and, at the same time, more authoritative. I have heard her say to my brother-Your approbation is necessary to me.' She would reproach herself even for our faults, saying to us-'If you commit faults, I shall not only be very unhappy, but I shall be stung with remorse.' 66 From the time of the marriage of Mademoiselle de Stael to the Duc de Broglie, she might be considered as the head of a little company of evangelical Christians at Paris; and her influence was very great in the sphere where she was then placed, being not only intimately acquainted with the king and queen, but the wife of the prime minister of the kingdom. Wherever she was, however, she never forgot "whose she was, and whom she served." She spoke out, but with admirable sweetness and discretion on all occasions; and in a sphere where it is perhaps most difficult to serve God openly, and to follow Christ faithfully, she walked humbly with her God; like the English Lady Howe; not only upholding, but adorning the doctrine of God our Saviour at all times and in all things. She was consulted constantly by the wise and the good in their efforts to circulate the Holy Scriptures, and to send the missionaries of the truth to foreign lands. And so far as the influence of a modest, retiring woman could be exerted in public life, her influence was felt. I well remember, at a meeting of the Bible Society, in the town of W- -, a few years since, when it was announced that the Report of the Paris Bible Society had been written by the wife of the prime minister of France, supplying the name, which had been forgotten, of the pious daughter of Madame de Stael. In her own family, it was the daily custom of this excellent woman to assemble her children and servants, and to read the Scriptures, and to pray with them. She was indeed a woman of much prayer. After the attempt which had been made upon the king's life by Fieschi, her first words to a friend who called upon her were: "Oh! there must have been much praying on the part of some of God's people, or it would have been far worse with us than it was." On that occasion, a musket-ball passed through the front part of her husband's coat, and cutting slightly the skin on the collar-bone, passed 24 along to the upper part of the sleeve on the other side, and there lodged, having spent its force. And this woman, in the mysterious providence of Him who doeth all things well, was cut off in the prime of her life, and in the midst of her usefulness. Let those who unite in lamenting her loss, unite also in praying that God may raise up others in the same high sphere of usefulness to supply her place, to imitate her example, and to exert around them a like influence. These are the women best fitted to form the character of a nation, by forming as Christian mothers the character of her statesmen, and of the heads of her various orders of society, in their childhood. It has been said by a distinguished statesman of our own country, and the testimony is peculiarly valuable as coming from such an individual to a woman of such decided godliness, "that if to celebrate the capacity of women, as well as to prove how gracefully the rarest gifts of the understanding may be combined with the kindliest dispositions of the heart, the moralist will naturally point towards the illustrious mother, he will also name the admirable daughter, if he would present to the love and respect of mankind the purest example of every female virtue, and of all the accomplishments that can adorn the softer sex." But the main spring of all that was pure and lovely and of good report in this distinguished lady, was humility; and the secret of her humility has been thus admirably portrayed: "She was truly humble; for her thoughts were habitually fixed, not upon those gifts and graces which she possessed in the sight but upon those which she wanted in the sight of God." of men, NOTE.-Part of the above account is taken from a little work by Mr. Baird, which has been withdrawn from circulation. THE CRUCIFIXION. BY THOMAS ZOUCH. HAIL, heavenly love, that with eternal sway Pervades creation's amplest bounds! 'Twas love That bade existence spring to life; the sun, Insphered in radiancy, began his course, And vegetation from the earth's warm lap Called forth her genial powers. 'Twas love that formed And shudders at the complicated crime. The head encircled with a crown of thorns, |