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MORE THAN FIFTY YEARS AGO. 103
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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-^_ It Is Considerably More Than Fifty Y...
strange faces and curious figures , and wild grotesques and fancies , such as the great artists delihted in painting in former times .
To finish my little story or g anecdote without more ado : I learned in the morning that my poor Alice was—dead ; that she had died
some months previously ; struck down for ever by that fever to recover from which she had gone hometo rest ! I never had it in
, my power , I lament to say , to testify in any substantial shape the gratitude I felt towards her , for having infused a love of books into
my mind . The above account of an amiable and accomplished woman ("
enduring servitude patiently and cheerfully ) is strictly true * I say that she was accomplished , because she knew thoroughly and entirely all
that she assumed to know . She had no little gaudy acquirements—patches and fragments of knowledge , — -scraps of
language—, dexterity on the piano-forte : —she did not know " vulgar and decimal fractions , " which appear now to be a necessity for every
one to know : she did not understand Poonah painting , nor painting on velvet . In the present day , she would never have
soughtnever have dared—to become a governess ; but "would have retired contentedly into another sphere—doing simply her duty , —doing
whatever she engaged to do completely , —and forcing respect from every one fortunate enough to secure her invaluable help .
For my part , I value a woman who consults , not her own vanity , but her strengthher true instincts . Let her attempt that only which
she sincerely feels , she can accomplish ; and let no one despair , who is sincere . Let her not anticipate a fall in the social ranks ,
because she is sensible and prudent . Let her not dream that all which is valuable in life lives within the petty prescribed circle of
her fancy . " There is a world elsewhere . " To that world let her go . She will at least be free from
self-abasement . And let her not dread a little temporary neglect—temporary solitude . Has she not a friend within ? Are there not friends even
in the loneliest places , to lift the soul up to things immortal , — eternal ? Look aboveand all around . There are the azure skies ,
, upon whose eternal pages are written the starry wonders of Night and Silence . There are the constant winds , bringing music and
inexpressible fragrance with the ever-returning Spring . There is the triumphant step of the heraldMarch—the organ of sublimer
, , Autumn , which carries the soul aloft , —afar off , —to the central heavens , —to lands beyond the flight of the eagles , " —beyond the
power even of thought—to regions vague , vast , shadowy—without shape or limit ; where ambition and vanity , —where life and dea _. th ,
—and all the fears , and trials , and troubles , of this world , seem to
expire and have an end I
More Than Fifty Years Ago. 103
MORE THAN FIFTY YEARS AGO . 103
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), April 1, 1858, page 103, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01041858/page/31/
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