"To describe her body describes her mind--one is the transcript
of the other; her understanding is not shown in the variety
of matters it exerts itself on, but in the goodness of the
choice she makes.
"She does not display it so much in saying or doing striking
things, as in avoiding such as she ought not to say or do.
"No person of so few years can know the world better; no person
was ever less corrupted by the knowledge of it.
"Her politeness flows rather from a natural disposition to oblige,
than from any rules on that subject, and therefore never fails to
strike those who understand good breeding and those who do not.
"She has a steady and firm mind, which takes no more from the
solidity of the female character than the solidity of marble does
from its polish and lustre. She has such virtues as make us value
the truly great of our own sex. She has all the winning graces
that make us love even the faults we see in the weak and
beautiful, in hers."
Let us give, as a companion picture, the not less beautiful
delineation of a husband, that of Colonel Hutchinson, the
Commonwealth man, by his widow. Shortly before his death,
he enjoined her "not to grieve at the common rate of desolate
women." And, faithful to his injunction, instead of lamenting
his loss, she indulged her noble sorrow in depicting her husband
as he had lived.
"They who dote on mortal excellences," she says, in her
Introduction to the 'Life,' "when, by the inevitable fate of all
things frail, their adored idols are taken from them, may let
loose the winds of passion to bring in a flood of sorrow, whose
ebbing tides carry away the dear memory of what they have lost;
and when comfort is essayed to such mourners, commonly all objects
are removed out of their view which may with their remembrance
renew the grief; and in time these remedies succeed, and
oblivion's curtain is by degrees drawn over the dead face; and
things less lovely are liked, while they are not viewed together
with that which was most excellent.
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