Discreetly severe,
Rule all in her sphere;

Give each maiden employ,

Watch each troublesome boy;
With orderly care

Keep all in repair;

And store without ceasing,

Her riches increasing;

And trim them, and prank them, and fashion them ever,
And rest-never!'

Hm,' I seemed to hear from my companion; 'they've not made the most of that last line when they put it into English.'

'No,' I thought; Serjeant Talfourd, when he made Clemanthe say that it is woman's part to

· weave all that she has

Of bright and beautiful, into the common lot,'

gave what seems to me a far better rendering, and I went on, for Mrs. Twitch's words were but the echo of my thoughts.

Will Sophia, taught and trained as a Sophomore,† be content in the after life of a Mrs. Homespun such as Schiller has drawn? or in that of an Aunt Grisel-so well described by Miss Ferrier-one of that class who are so often in earnest what they have been called in jest, 'unappropriated blessings?'

Even if Sophia is herself contented with a lot, the glory and the beauty, or in one word, the poetry of which must be mainly of her own making, will this more special training render her more fit for that which Iago describes in the plainest of English, as the 'suckling of fools, and chronicling of small beer?'

I thought of the Catalan proverb-'You a lady, I a lady, who shall drive the pigs a-field?' and wondered if it would come to 'You a sophomore, absorbed in the "Differentiation of the Elementary Functions of one independent variable;" I a sophomore, engrossed by the "Integration of rational fractions;" which of us shall tot up that very independent variable, the butcher's book? or darn the stockings in which sorrowful experience shows that fractions are apt to be anything but rational?'

'I've no patience with that fellow,' interrupted Mrs. Twitch; what would he have? If the poor little fools are born, somebody must feed them, and a fine piece of work the men's clumsy fingers would make of it, I reckon.'

'Ay,' I thought, recollecting too, for my comfort, what one of the most learned of our modern divines had said of a chronicle of such very small matters as the Diary of Eugenie de Guérin. My memory went back to Mrs. Grant of Laggan's 'Letters from the Mountains,' and

* Ion.

See Miss Jex Blake's clever sketch of the American School System.

further back still, to the Correspondence between Mrs. Carter and Miss Talbot, till there is no saying how many more names I might not have mustered had not Mrs. Twitch interrupted me again.

'What's been most use to you of all you ever learnt?'

One may ask in a moment more than can be answered in a month; and I was quite at fault, till I luckily recollected Julia Mannering's letter to her confidante, saying how, in return for her help in French and Italian, Lucy was to teach her the art of riding, and the habit of walking, and the courage necessary to defy the weather. It served for an answer, though it did not entirely satisfy me any more than my companion, who seemed to have expected a different one.

'Surely there was an old tutor who said something of me?'

'Oh, yes! Dominie Sampson reckoned hemming and shaping next after his own lessons in Latin, and all the rest that he taught Miss Bertram.'

'Sensible man!' And Mrs. Twitch seemed to flourish her long streamers more energetically than before. And, at any rate, he was not jealous of women's learning all they care for; no more are any of them, so far as I can see with my one eye.'

I was not likely to gainsay her. Once, when for some of my own purposes I wished to learn the Greek alphabet, had not the father of the three little damsels in whose service Mrs. Twitch and I were then engaged, immediately written it out for me? and on my regretting that he had only given me the small letters, had not my Eton and Oxford nephew generously torn out the first page of his Greek grammar, and sent it me by post? Nay, that very morning, had not I heard the Squire boast that his wife knew more of Scripture history than half the curates in the county? a boast, which I felt thankful no school inspector was likely to test my powers of justifying!

But the old man of my story, though he had lived in a wood' all his previous life, had the light let in on him at last, and was quite magnanimous enough to admit not only his own failure in her work, but his wife's success in his.

'If two ride on one horse, one must ride behind.'

So says Shakspeare, speaking the universal language of common sense. Woman's position is not inferior, but it is subordinate. I fancy I could show, on far higher grounds than I should like to take at the end of a trifling paper like this, that it was so ordained from the Beginning, and that her highest happiness depends on her heartily accepting the position; I think I could show yet more readily that Ich dien (I serve) should be to her the key-note of her life's harmony; never,' as St. Paul says, usurping authority over man:' though when, as it sometimes happens, the command is put into her hands lawfully, her peculiar gift, the power of adapting herself to circumstances, almost always enables her,

like the old woman in the story, to drive her plough straight, and 'lay her furrows even.'

There is nothing servile in being serviceable; woman's service should be in the spirit which dictated the motto of one of our oldest English families, who bear for their crest an uncaparisoned horse at full speed, with three words in Saxon, which being translated mean

A servant, not a slave.'

And that training is the best and the noblest for woman, which best fits each to be serviceable on the highest motives; 'with good-will doing service, as unto the Lord; or in the simple words of our Church Catechism, 'Doing her duty in that state of life unto which it shall please God to call her.'

'Ay,' put in Mrs. Twitch; 'what was it he looked out for, that went and hid up in the arbour when the ladies all came dancing by?

"Who fairest was? who best could dance and sing?
Or who most womanly was in everything?" '†

But the pinafores were finished, and Mrs. Twitch tucked in between her blankets to rest, or we might have gone on to explain our 'views' as to the best means of forming this really serviceable character, that alone can make woman a help meet for anybody. And it was as well that a natural end should be put to our dissertation, since, but for that, it seemed likely to have extended far beyond the limits which The Monthly Packet, or any other magazine, monthly or quarterly, could have spared us.

R. L. C.

KAISERSWERTH DEACONESSES AT FLORENCE. OUR readers may have read, in the April number of 'Fraser's Magazine, an interesting account by an Italian lady of a school for young girls of the upper and middle classes lately suppressed at Genoa. It was a wisely and well managed school, though, to our English notions, some of the more minute regulations appear rather unnecessary; for instance, the prohibitions to pupils under fourteen from wearing long hair, and the permitting only the plain surname to be applied in speaking of or to any of the girls, whatever their rank, to prevent jealousies. But it was, as we have said, well and wisely managed, and it is hard to conceive under what possible pretext it was suppressed. So earnest was the endeavour of those connected with this institution to avoid anything in their instructions which could offend the ruling powers, that themes were not

* Dering-of Surrenden-Dering.

† Chaucer. The Flower and the Leaf.'

6

allowed to be written on certain words, such as 'Tyranny,' Slavery,' 'Imprisonment,' 'Exile,' &c. But the priesthood, their fears naturally roused by the rapid influx of liberal opinions into Italy, and not seeing that the only counterpoise to the tendency to infidelity, which too often accompanies liberalism, is the providing sound Scriptural instruction for the people, have become alarmed at the idea of young ladies getting learned on subjects which till now have been scarcely taught even to their brothers; and even the orthodox name of the Archbishop of Genoa, a warm friend to the school, has not sufficed to remove their prejudices against it.

Humbler, and yet, one would hope, sheltered by that very humility from awakening ecclesiastical jealousy, is the institute we are anxious to bring before the notice of our readers-a branch of the noble 'Kaiserswerth.' It does not, indeed, profess to be anything more than a school for young girls, but will, no doubt, if able to continue its work, develope into an admirable training establishment for teachers. We quote part of a letter from a lady in this country who has been a warm friend to the Deaconesses, and has permitted us to make any use of information furnished by her, in making the labours of the good Sisters known.

'We are the better able to bear testimony to the upright character of the Deaconesses and the good effects of their training, from having placed under their care a young motherless Italian girl, in whose forlorn situation we were led to take an interest. She was for two years under their roof: and the change in her from a state of total moral neglect and almost heathen ignorance to one in which she is now maintaining herself usefully and respectably as mistress of a school at Pisa, speaks volumes for their power of training; while the warm affection she retains for them proves that they know how to gain the hearts of their pupils. Having kept up a correspondence with the directress of the Institution respecting this young girl, she has naturally applied to me in their present difficulties. . . . I ought to state that this is in no sense a charity school. It is intended for young ladies, and the terms (£40 per annum for boarders, and £12 per annum for day scholars,) covers their ordinary expenses. The object of the Deaconesses is not to make money, but to do good. It would be impossible for them, however, to meet present emergencies by raising their terms, as they are already considered high for Italy-the convents charging even less. We are most anxious to help these good women, not only from personal esteem, but because we so strongly feel that all who have had the great enjoyment of visiting Italy, owe it to her as a duty to endeavour to do something to promote her best interests. But I wish the Deaconesses had more powerful friends than ourselves to advocate their cause. I feel persuaded that there are many, who, if the case The debts incurred by the Deaconesses in purchasing and moving into their new house.

*

*

could be properly brought before them, would willingly come forward to the help of Italy at this important crisis. What she most needs, next to the diffusion of the Gospel, is a good and upright education for her daughters, and this the Deaconesses are certainly giving to a considerable number of girls. The closing of this school would be a real loss to the country. If the Deaconesses can now obtain suitable premises of their own, they hope to make their Institution increasingly useful by establishing an orphanage as well as a school for poor children. People in England unacquainted with Italy are apt to ask why the Deaconesses should not rent a house instead of going to the expense of purchasing premises for a school, which may any day come to an end. In the first place, this is not like a private school. Being a branch of the regularlyorganized establishment at Kaiserswerth, it will be kept up with a regular succession of Deaconesses from thence as needed. In the second place, (besides the recent enormous increase of house-rents in Florence,) in Italy, to rent a house or even to take it on lease is no guarantee against disturbance; the lease of premises holds good against the owner's wanting them for his own occupation; and upon a change of ownership by sale or otherwise, any lease becomes valueless.'

To give an idea of the education afforded by the Deaconesses to their pupils, some of whom are Romanists, others Protestants, some from high Italian families, and others daughters of foreigners, English, French, Germans, and Americans, we translate part of their prospectus.

"The instruction which is given to the young girls comprises every branch of a solid and Christian education. It is given in the French language, and the subjects taught are as follows:

Sacred and general history, geography, literature, grammar, the natural sciences, arithmetic, vocal music, caligraphy, drawing, and needlework. There are courses of English, Italian, and German, instruction in which three languages is given by teachers connected with the establishment.. ... Every year there will be a course of lessons in gymnastics. . . . The terms for each pupil is eight hundred and seventyfive francs a quarter. Half-boarders are charged three hundred francs, and day-pupils one hundred and fifty. . . . The hours for study are from nine till four, with an hour's rest from twelve till one. A week's holidays are given at Christmas, a week at Easter, and ten weeks in summer. . . . Lessons on the piano-forte are payed for as extras.'

That the Deaconesses know how to provide innocent pleasure as well as instruction, may be judged of by the following pleasing description of their Christmas festivities in an Italian Protestant paper, 'L'Eco della Verità.' We have not translated the commencement, which merely describes the Christmas Tree, and the mode of keeping the festival in Protestant countries, and would therefore convey no information to an English reader.

'On Saturday, December 22nd, the Christmas Tree was decorated in * Since this was written they have bought a house in the Via S. Monaca.