90 Ginevra and the Oaken Chest. And dear to your souls is the memory Gazes his fill, and comes and comes again of these privileges-holy is the place That he may call it up, when far away. where they have been enjoyed. It cannot seem old, but venerable-the more ven- She sit inclining, forward as to speak, erable because your minds go not back Her lips half open, and her finger up, to its origin. You have never seen the As though she said, 'Beware!' her vest of gold working of human hands; you have heard Broider'd with flowers, and clasp'd from no sound of haminer or saw; to your imhead to foot, agination it is without beginning, and An emeraid stone in every golden clasp; you would have it without end. I can- And on her brow, fairer than alabaster, not but sympathize with the sentiment, A coronet of pearls. though my own relation to this ancient structure is but of yesterday. It is hon But then her face orable to human nature. I would that So lovely, yet so arch, so full of mirth, every christian temple could be built The overflowings of an innocent heartfrom the everlasting rock, that it might it haunts me still tho' many a year has fled, be imperishable as the spiritual idea of Like some wild melody! which it is the visible sign. I would not abandon this frail edifice with heartless panion, Alone it hangs indifference. Let all its accumulated re- Over a mouldering heir-loom, its commembrances go with us. Let us linger, and look, and sigh out a last farewell. An oaken chest, half eaten by the worm, House of God, farewell forever! From But richly carved by Antony of Trent every part of thy old frame comes melo- With Scripture stories from the life of Christ: dies and counsels and warnings. The A chest that came from Venice, and had bell has tolled its final summons; in a held few moments the organ notes will be The ducal robes of some old ancestor― hushed to their long silence; the clock, That by the way--it may be true or false— from its high watchtower, has just sound- But don't forget the picture; and you will ed out in our ears its last solemn tone, as not, if time should be no more; the spire When you have heard the tale they told points upward to the serene heavens, to me there. show us that our home and rest are there, in the bosom of the Infinite. The pulpit She was an only child-her name Ginevra, -the altar of baptism-the table of Christ The joy, the pride of an indulgent father; with its touching memories-all, with in- And in her fifteenth year became a bride, articulate but thrilling voices, echo our Marrying an only son, Francisco Doria, last farewell! With mingled emotions Her playmate from her birth, and her first of sorrow and gladness we go; we obey love. the voice of God, speaking to us through his Providence, and saying, 'Arise and depart, for this is not your rest.'" Records of Woman. GINEVRA & THE OAKEN CHEST. Just as she looks there in her bridal dress tongue. But now the day was come, the day, the hour; Now frowning, smiling, for the hundret! time The nose, that ancient lady, preach'd de. corum; And, in the lustre of her youth, she gave Her hand, with her heart in it, to Francisco. If ever you should come to Móden "Tis of a Lady in her radiant youth, not. He who observes it-ere he passes on, Nor was she to be found! Her father cried, And soon from guest to guest the panie 'Twas but that instant she had left Fran cisco, Laughing and looking back,and flying still, But that she was not! Weary of his life Francisco flew to Venice, and, embarking, rarely attained by the best of writers she consecrated all upon the sacred altars of rational and scriptural piety. While she was a great writer, a popular woman and the companion of the great she was the truly, humble follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. A combination the more valuable because seldom found, like rare pearls that derive their value from their great beauty and scarcity. Miss More was born at Stapleton in the county of Gloucester, England, A. D. 1745. Something he could not find-he knew Her father, though originally educated for not what. When he was gone, the house remained the ministry, was the teacher of a public awhile school near Stapleton. He was a man of Silent and tenantless-then went to stran-deep erudition and carefully watched ovez gers. Full fifty years were passed, and all for gotten, When on an idle day, a day of search the education of his five daughters, of whom Miss Hannah More was the fourth. She very early gave striking indications of the talents, that afterwards shone out so like a sun upon the world. Such minds as those of Sheridan, Peach, Dr. LangBy one as young, as tho'tless as Ginevra, horne, Ferguson, and others were inter"Why not remove it from its lurking place?ested in her productions and sought her 'Twas done as soon as said; but on the way friendship before she had attained her It burst, it fell; and lo, a skeleton With here and there a pearl, an emerald stone, A golden clasp, clasping a shred of gold. There then had she found a grave! Within that chest had she conceal'd herself Fluttering with joy, the happiest of the happy; When a spring-lock, that lay in ambush there, Fasten'd her down for ever. For the Ladies' Pearl. HANNAH MORE. seventeenth year. 66 Her first published production was her Search after Happiness," published when she was only seventeen. It was remarkably successful for in a few months it passed through three editions. Her next work was a legendary tale called "Sir Elched of the Bower," with a short poem entitled "The Bleeding Rock." This work excited much interest in the literary circles of London and met with a ready sale. Bleau," a poem, "Florio," "Thoughts on the importance of the manners of the great," "Bonner's Ghost," "Estimate of the Religion of the Fashionable World," "Village Politics." The Monthly Repos "Bas Among the honorable women whose itory-Strictures on Female Educationnames stand conspicuous on the records of Celebs in Search of a Wife-Practical PiHistory, Poetry, Genius and Piety, none ety-Christian Morals-Essay on the chardeserve our respect and honor more than acter of St. Paul-Moral Sketches and othHannah More. Possessed of highly re-er works followed in succession, all of spectable family connections, moving in which were widely circulated and procurthe highest literary circles of the most lit-ed for their fair authoress an undying erary nation in the world, having a genius wreath of literary fame and a high place of the first order, talents hardly second to among the first writers of her age. any of her age and a literary popularity In the earlier part of her active life she gentle breathing of an infant's A few minutes after one in the assisted her sisters in conducting a large but the and popular boarding-house at Bristol but sleep. afterwards when a small annuity and the morning of the 7th; her last gentle breath rapid sale of her works furnished her with escaped and she was added to the multicompetent means of support, she purchas- tude in heaven. She was buried beside ed a small estate near Bristol, called cow- her sisters near the parish church of slip green. She afterwards purchased a Wrington, on the 13th of September. more extensive one, near by, called Bar- In person Miss More was of the middle ley wood. She spent the greater part of size with rather a slender figure-in dress her useful life on these estates, expending she was plain, neat and simple, entirely her time and money in promoting the hap-avoiding the use of jewels-in manners piness and improvement of the poor for she was kind, simple and affable. possessed fine conversational powers, great wit, and an exhaustless stock of good nature, and her ardent piety threw a bright She miles round her residence. She established schools, procured means for their religious instruction, aided their poverty with her purse, and devoted herself to works of and peaceful halo over her whole characpiety and philanthropy. ter. Such was Hannah More, and may A disappointment in early life decided the world yet produce many who shall Miss More's mind in favor of a single life. equal her in piety, at least,if not in talent. Mr Turner, a gentleman of wealth and birth, offered her his hand which she ac A FEMALE Soldier. The Glaneur cepted, and the day of their wedding was du Haut Rhin relates :-" "There is at Colfixed. Before it arrived he begged it might||mar a woman who is with difficulty able be deferred. It was done and another day to obtain the means of existence, but fixed, when he again wished it to be put whose extraordinary life should make her off. This vaccillation Miss More consid- Colmar in 1783. an object of interest. She was born at Her father was a serered dishonorable and refused all further geant, and her mother one of the suttlers consideration of the matter. The match of his regiment. Her father was killed was accordingly broken off, but Mr Tur- during the campaign of Calabria, and her ner settled an annuity upon her, and at his mother's head was carried away by a cannon ball at the battle of Fleurus. In 1802 death left her a handsome sum of money. our heroine married the drum-major of The mind of Miss More was from the the 62d demi-brigade, named Girard. She beginning of her life inclined to serious-became, like her mother, a suttler, and ness, but it was not until 1782 that she be-entered Spain with the division of Gencame decidedly religious. The death of eral Donnadieu. She was present at the the eloquent Garrick and the learned taking of Saragossa, then passed into Portugal, and returned to Barcelona, at Johnson, who were her particular friends, which time she had eight sons who all had a powerful effect upon her mind and entered the army. led her to form those holy purposes, to From Barcelona she went into Austria, renounce the world and to live for heaven, and was wounded by a lance at the batthat afterwards governed her life. From tle of Wagram. She was present at the that time her piety became deep, ardent, taking of Vienna, and was subsequently in garrison at Naples for several months. practical and consistent. She then returned to Spain with her husHannah More lived to the ripe old age band, who was decorated at the taking of of eighty-nine. She died Sept. 7th, 1833, Girona, at which she assisted, carrying at her house in Windsor Terrace, Clifton, on this occasion a musket, and fighting whither she had removed a few years be- with the troops. She next accompanied fore. Her last word was "Joy"! In her the expedition to Russia, and was recklast moments there was an unusual bright- the famous retreat, out of four battalions oned among the 25 who remained after ness in the expression of her face. She of 1000 each. She was present at Courlooked very serene,and there was nothing bevoie on the re-organization of her reg iment, and was engaged in the affairs of Eyes that beam with health may yet grow Chalons, Troyes, Bar-sur-Aube, and Bri enne. dim, And cheeks of rose forget their early glow; She followed the Emperor with her husband to the island of Elba, and was at Languor and pain assail each active limb, And lay, perchance, some worshipped beauty low; the battle of Waterloo. In 1815, her husband was made adjutant in the artillery. Then when ye gaze upon the altered brow, In 1823, she accompanied him to Spain. And love as fondly, as faithfully as now? and saw him killed between Barcelona head, and Gracia. On her return to France in Should fortune frown on your defenceless 1825, she married a sergeant-major,hamed Varin, and accompanied him on the expedition to Africa,in which all her sons Should storms 'ertake your barque, on life's dark sea were engaged. She lost her husband and Fierce tempests rend the sail so gaily When hope her syren strain sang joy spread, ously; two of her sons, one of whom was drummajor, and the other master of a band, during this expedition, and was twice wounded herself. She returned to her Will ye look up, though clouds your sky native town last year, but has hitherto re- And o'ercast, sisted every attempt to excite sympathy say, 'Together we will bide the blast?' by making her history known. A sub-Age with its silv'ry locks comes stealing on scription has been opened for her at Col mar. The Tile. From the Knickerbocker for June. THE MARRIAGE VOW. "Look, how they come-a mingled crowd, Of bright and dark, but rapid days; Beneath them, like a summer cloud, The wide world changes as ye gaze." BRYANT. Speak it not lightly!-'tis a holy thing, A bond enduring through long distant years, When joy o'er thine abode is hovering, Or when thine eye is wet with bitterest Recorded by an angel's pen on high, and gay Are thronging round thee now, with tones of mirth, Let not the holy promise of to-day But ever bright and sacred may it be, Life will not prove all sunshine: there will come Dark hours for all: O, will ye, when the night Of sorrow gathers thickly round your home Love as ye did, in times when calm and bright Seemed the sure path ye trod, untouched by care, And deemed the future, like the present, fair? FLAXMAN AND HIS WIFE. In 1782, Flaxman hired a small study in Wardour street, collected a stock of choice models, set his sketches in good order,and took unto himself a wife-Ann Denman-one who had long loved and who well deserved his affection. She was amiable and accomplished, had a taste for art and literature, was skilful in French and Italian, and, like her husband, had acquired some knowledge of the Greek. But, what was better than his genius; she cheered and encouraged all, she was an enthusiastic admirer of him in his moments of despondency, reglated modestly and prudently his domestic economy, and arranged his drawings, managed now and then his correspondence, and acted in all particulars so bat it seemed as if the church, in performing a marriage, had accomplished a 94 The Gatherer. The Literary Gatherer miracle,and blended them really into one flesh and blood. He had never doubted that in the company of her whom he lov-" I'm but a gatherer and disposer of other ed, he should be able to work with an inmen's stuff." tenser spirit; but of another opinion was Sir Joshua Reynolds. "So, Flaxman," ANECDOTE OF FAUST.-The following said the President of the day,as he chan- anecdote, shows the foundation of the ced to meet him, "I am told you are mar-well known popular tradition of " the Devried-if so, sir, I tell you, you are ruined il and Dr Faustus:" for an artist!" Flaxman went home, sat In the infancy of printing, Johannes down beside his wife, took her hand, and Faust, a native of Mentz, and one of the said, with a smile, "I am ruined for an earliest printers, had the policy to conartist." "John," said she, “how has this ceal his art. Faust, in partnership with happened, and who has done it ?" "It Peter Schoeffer, having, in 1462, printed happened," said he, "in the church; and off a considerable number of copies of the Ann Denman has done it; I met Sir bible, to imitate those which were comJoshua Reynolds, just now, and he said monly sold in MS., undertook the sale of marriage had ruined me in my profession." them at Paris, where the art of printFor a moment a cloud hung upon Flax-ing was then unknown. At first he sold his man's brow; but this worthy couple un-copies for so high a sum as 500 or 600 derstood each other too well to have their crowns, the prices usually demanded by happiness seriously marred by the un-the scribes. He afterwards lowered his guarded and peevish remark of a wealthy prices to 50 crowns, which created uniold bachelor. * * * For thirty years, versal astonishment: but when he proFlaxman had lived wedded; his health duced copies as fast as they were wanted was generally good, his spirits were and lowered the price to 30 crowns, all equal, and his wife, to whom his faine Paris was agitated. The uniformity of was happiness, had always been at his the copies increased the wonder; inforside. Her husband paid her the double mations were given into the police against respect due to affection and talent, and him as a magician; his lodgings were when any difficulty in composition oc- searched: and a great number of copies curred, he would say, with a smile, "Ask being found, they were seized; the red Mrs Flaxman, she is my dictionary." ink with which they were embellished She maintained the simplicity and digni- was said to be his blood: it was seriousty of her husband, and refused all pres-ly adjuged that he was in league with ents of paintings, or drawings, or books, the devil; and if he had not fled, most unless some reciprocal interchange were probably he would have shared the fate made. It is almost needless to say, that of those whom ignorant and superstitious Flaxman loved such a woman very ten-judges condemned in those days for derly. The hour of their separation ap-witchcraft. proached; she fell ill and died, in 1820;|| and from the time of this bereavement, AMERICAN WOMEN.--De Tocqueville, something like a lethargy came over his in the second part of his great work, pays spirits. His sister, a lady of taste, and a warm tribute to the worth of our countalent much like his own, and his wife's try women. sister, were of his household; but she marks: He thus concludes his rewho had shared in all his joys and sortate to avow that, although the women of "As for myself, I do not hesirows was gone, and nothing could com- the United States are confined within the fort him.--Lives of British Painters, narrow circle of domestic life, and their Sculptors, and Architects. situation is, in some respects, one of extreme dependence, I have no where seen MATRIMONY.-"A lady once said to women occupying a loftier position: me," writes Sir W. Pepys, "when I was (that is, of moral influence,) and if I were going to give her away to her third hus-asked, now that I am drawing to the close band, and told her that she ought not to of this work, in which I have spoken of appear in such high spirits, but look ap-so many important things done by the prehensive "Matrimony is like a cold Americans, to what the singular prosperbath, very formidable the first time, but ity and growing strength of that people when you have tried it often, you become ought mainly to be attributed, I should used to it!!" reply-to the superiority of their wOMEN. |