"The weighty charge of five young children, the eldest of whom was eleven years old, the superintendence of their education, and the management of complicated affairs, demanded no common share of resolution, resource of mind, and strength of character. In these important duties, Mrs. Washington acquitted herself with great fidelity to her trust, and with entire success. Her good sense, assiduity, tenderness, and vigilance overcame every obstacle; and as the richest reward of a mother's solicitude and toil, she had the happiness to see all her children come forward with a fair promise into life, filling the sphere allotted to them in a manner equally honorable to themselves, and to the parent who had been the only guide of their principles, conduct, and habits. She lived to witness the noble career of her eldest son, till by his own rare merits, he was raised to the head of a nation, and applauded and revered by the whole world. It has been said, that there. never was a great man, the elements of whose greatness might not be traced to the original characteristics or early influence of his mother. If this be true, how much do mankind owe to the mother of Washington."

CHAPTER VII.

Thou high-born spirit, on whose countenance,
Pure and beloved, is seen reflected all

That Heaven and Nature can on earth achieve !—

MICHEL ANGELO.

"There sounds not to the trump of Fame,

The echo of a noble name !"

As well might we assimilate the airy graces of a modern belle, arrayed in the ample costume of the present day, with the undraped proportions and severe beauty of an antique statue, as to compare the life and character of the MOTHEr of WASHINGTON with those of the women of our own times, or adjudge her attire, character, and manners by the arbitrary rules of fashionable conventionalism!

Hers was a character that might stand forth in its natural majesty, unrelieved by the "aids and appliances" of adventitious circumstance; and the grateful reverence which we instinctively accord her, can only be inspired by transcendent worth.

Those who best knew her inestimable qualities, earnestly strive to impress us with the conviction that she was gifted with attributes adapting her in a most extraordinary degree to the immortal part assigned her in the drama of human existence. Yet the stern virtues that served to mould a future Hero, were attempered by womanly tenderness and sympathy; and we associate them in our remembrance with the practical kindness and unostentatious habits that equally marked her daily life.

The philosophy so forcibly illustrated in the history of Mary Washington is not that of Plato, of Socrates, or of Zeno, but that of CHRIST!

Her equanimity was not the result of constitutional insensibility, nor yet of a debasing stoicism, but of the dominant influence of immutable Religious Principle, forever supreme, alike over the weaknesses of nature and the promptings of worldly ambition.

The life and character of this illustrious matron, in some points of general resemblance, reminded us of those of the self-devoted Scottish Covenanters of old like them, she regarded with indifference, if not with contempt, the inconvenient requisitions of ceremony and the unscrupulous

exactions of corrupting fashion; like them she sought to obtain from the Bible alone her invariable rule of life; and like them, she worshipped God surrounded by the majestic companionship of nature,

"Not 'neath the domes, where crumbling arch and column Attest the feebleness of mortal hand;

But in that fane, most catholic and solemn,

Which God has plann'd!"

Her Name and her Fame are the priceless inheritance, not of her native country alone, but of every land that boasts a knowledge of the glorious achievements of the immortal Champion of Liberty!

Her name will be revered, and her memory cherished, when those of mighty empires and world-renowned sovereigns shall have sunk forever into the whirlpool of Oblivion: unsullied, unobscured by the supremacy of power and the lapse of ages, they will beam forth resplendent in the sanctified lustre of MORAL GRANDEUr.

At the feet of the proud daughter of the Ptolemies, the conquerors of the world laid down their crowns, yet Clio, faithful to the truth, withholds the meed of honor from the coward soul that

could not brave adversity. The history of Christina, the royal Swedish wanderer, scarce serves, at best, to "point a moral," and awakens no more exalted sentiment than one of pitying regret. Maria Theresa, despite her many and exalted excellencies, sacrificed some of woman's first, best duties on the altar of ambition. who will demand either love or veneration for the memory of England's greatest Queen, renowned as much for her most unfeminine faults, as for her boasted masculine virtues.

And

Imagination may pall in the contemplation of mere charms of person,-even though unrivalled,-when associated with the moral cowardice. of the famous Egyptian Queen; we may regard profound erudition without respect, when allied with the undisciplined instincts and uncontrolled passions of the celebrated daughter of the Great Gustavus; or hear with indifference, tributes to the religious enthusiasm and regal heroism of the Empress-King;* or turn with unsympathizing dislike from the haughty, indomitable, relentless Elizabeth; but when shall the daughters of Co

"BEHOLD OUR KING!" was the enthusiastic exclamation of the brave Hungarian nobles, at the most touching and sublime moment of the life of this great sovereign.