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230 ROSA FEBRTJCCI.
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.
« Honiliab, As We Have Now Become With, ...
them the true aim of their calling in life . It is constantly said that hihmental culture in women is incompatible with those domestic
virtues g , which form her _Tbest ornament ; it is said that to educate a woman beyond a certain standard is to unfit her for her duties and
take her out of her place in life . Another and a still wider class asserteither in word or practicethat it is impossible for women to
, , put a reasonable control over their affections ; and that while a man ' s enduring attachment is acknowledged to be a spur to his exertions _,,
and to exercise a beneficial influence over his life , a woman's affection A woman only weakens ie in love her " is ch supposed aracter and necessar circumscribes ily to be absent her usefulness dreamy .
, , and often listless ; nothing interests her save the quantity of her trousseau or the mode of her wedding dress . She lives for a few
months in a fairy dream , or a whirl of excitement , and awakes , sooner or laterto find she has taken one of life ' s most important
steps without consideration , , has to perform heavy and wearying duties for which _slie is unprepared , and without the strength she
stands in utmost need . The life of Rosa Ferrucei gives a practical refutation to these
charges—at least to the necessity of their being true . Her high intellectual abilities and distinguished education took nothing from
her womanliness or her retiring modesty , nor did it impede her performance of any of woman ' s peculiar duties . Her deep love for
Gaetano Orsini , and her long engagement to him , served but to elevate her mind and sanctify her heart . "We hasten to speak of
her more in detail . Her father was a Professor in the University of Pisa , her mother
an author of some celebrity in Italy . Rosa's rare talents were cultivated by them with the utmost care . She learnt French , German ,
English , and Latin ; she knew the whole of the " Divina Comedia " by heart ; and she was well acquainted with the standard writers in
most European languages , as well as the ancient classics , which latter were studied under her mother ' s careful supervision . She
corresponded in French and German , as well as in her own language ,-She composed with graceful ease , and some of her essays , chiefly on
subjects of local interest , have been published since her death . She was also a first-rate musician . Yet when we look into her life , its chief
characteristics did not lie in these things . She was simple , modest , and childlike . Hex French biographer , who knew her personally ,
says , " She had a childlike modesty , and was most skilful in concealing her acquirements . " She was the most loving and obedient of
children , and a true and gentle friend to the poor . Neither Dante , nor Virgil , nor _Fleuxy , nor Milton , hindered her daily visits to the
sick and suffering ; she secretly denied herself food that she might feed the hungry . On one occasion her heart was sot on procuring
some e new befor music e her , when She had a pressing not petition for hfor hel both p from claims the poor and
cam . money enoug , , , the music was foregone ; and when her friends scolded her for this .
230 Rosa Febrtjcci.
230 ROSA _FEBRTJCCI .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Dec. 1, 1861, page 230, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01121861/page/14/
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