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370 MADAME BE STAfiL.
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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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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
« Science Tells Us That There Is No Such...
But some education in the school of sorrow was necessary for which tjhis _j _)& -would ssionate lead -hearted her to woman brave before sufferin she g in could the path gain of an dut experience y . Her
extravagant , admiration for her father , and her childish irritability whenever his comfort was concerned , were such as to rouse the
Irony of her friends . She could never forgive the injuries which were offered to him ; and unable to endure the thought that he
would ever grow old , would resent with fury every casual hint as to his declining strength . Hence her powers of sympathy and
emotion were first developed by her father's banishment ; and daring all consequences , she made his cause her own . Marie
Antoinette ( blinded as usual to the imprudences of her conduct ) conceived an aversion to the daughter of _ISTecker , whose charms
of superiority of intellect and natural manners were enhanced tenfold by contrast with her artificial Court , and treated her .
openly with haughty indifference . Madame de Stael ( on her part ignorant of the terrible suffering by which the poor Queen was
fated to expiate her errors ) did not care to hide her resentment , . and blamed the unfortunate Marie for her vanity and frivolity .
Prosperity after a time returned . In 1788 , M . Necker was the darling of the French people . His daughter triumphed in his
recall , and believed in his magical power of restoring order to the disordered State . M . Neckeron the contrarywas dispirited and
, , fearful . e : Would to God ! " he cried , " they had given me the last seventeen months : things have now gone too far ! "
A few short months were sufficient to justify the Importance of these apprehensions . Poor Necker was powerless to arrest the
crowding horrors . He was denied a place in the King ' s council on account of his religious opinions . He was treatedas his daughter tells us
, , but as a sentinel , " whom the Court still kept at his post to deceive the enemy as to its manoeuvres / ' One July day in 1789 , the
popular minister , once more relieved by dismissal from his terrible responsibilitywas journeying with a lightened heart towards the
, _Flemish frontier , where he hoped to rest in peace . Arrived at Brussels , he sent corn , purchased with his private property , to relieve
the starving people of Paris . " Oh , my country ! " exclaims Madame de Stael" it was thus my father served you ! "
Such , generosity was seen and rewarded by Heaven . Let us describe in what manner .
Events , in terrible succession , passed on . The innocent Louis XVI . was doomed to expiate the sins of his predecessor on the
scaffold . The unreasoning people of France , "believing the absolute power of the State to be responsible for the terrible sufferings they
had borne , hastened to revenge an evil they could no longer endure , without considering the probability that some one else without
legitimate authority would usurp the unoccupied power , and in his . turn tyrannize over the helpless public . In this state of things
Robespierre vaulted into office . "Is it a crime , ' / said Catiline ,
370 Madame Be Stafil.
370 MADAME BE STAfiL .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Aug. 1, 1862, page 370, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01081862/page/10/
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