She came to the United States in December, 1849, with Governor Ladislas Ujhazy and his family, where she and her heroic friends received a most enthusiastic welcome.

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"Those who have never seen this Hungarian or Polish heroine," says a writer in the National Era, to which we are indebted for this sketch, may be interested in hearing something of her personnel. She is of medium height, and quite slender. Her arm and hand are especially delicate and beautiful, and her figure round and graceful. She is a brunette, with large dark eyes, and black, abundant hair. Her lips have an expression of great determination, but her smile is altogether charming. In that the woman comes out; it is arch, soft, and winning—a rare, an indescribable smile. Her manner is simple and engaging, her voice is now gentle or mirthful, now earnest and impassioned-sometimes sounds like the utterance of some quiet, home-love, and sometimes startles you with a decided ring of the steel. Her enthusiasm and intensity of feeling reveal themselves in almost every thing she says and does. An amusing instance was told me when in Washington. An album was one day handed her, for her autograph. She took it with a smile; but on opening it at the name of M. Bodisco, the Russian ambassador, pushed it from her with flashing eyes, refusing to appear in the same book with the tool of a tyrant!'

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"Yet, after all, she is one to whom children go, feeling the charm of her womanhood, without being awed by her greatness. She bears herself with no military air; there is nothing in her manner to remind you of the camp, though much to tell you that you are in the presence of no ordinary woman.'

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JAMESON, ANNA,

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IS ONE of the most gifted and accomplished of the living female writers of Great Britain. Her father, Mr. Murphy, was an Irish gentleman of high repute as an artist, and held the office of Painter in Ordinary to her Royal Highness Princess Charlotte. By her order he undertook to paint the Windsor Beauties," so called; but before these were completed, the sudden death of the princess put a stop to the plan. Mr. Murphy lost his place; and his pictures, from which he had anticipated both fame and fortune, were left on his hands, without any remuneration. It was to aid the sale of these portraits, when engraved and published, that his daughter, then Mrs. Jameson, wrote the illustrative memoirs which form her work, entitled "The Beauties of the Court of King Charles II.," published in London, in 1833. Prior to this, however, Mrs. Jameson had become known as a graceful writer and accomplished critic on the Beautiful in Art, as well as a spirited delineator of Life. Her first work was the "Diary of an Ennuyée," published in London, in 1825, about two years after her marriage with Captain Jameson, an officer in the British army. Of this marriage-union it has never been- -we will only say here, that it seems to have exercised an unforSara J Clarke.

tunate influence over the mind of Mrs. Jameson, which is greatly to be regretted, because it mars, in a degree, all her works; - but especially her latter ones, by fettering the noblest aspirations of her genius, instinctively feminine, and therefore only capable of feeling the full compass of its powers when devoted to the True and the Good. We shall advert to this again. The "Diary of an Ennuyée" was published anonymously; it depicted an enthusiastic, poetic, broken-hearted young lady, on her travels abroad; much space being given to descriptions of works of art at Rome, and other Italian cities. This, on the whole, is Mrs. Jameson's most popular and captivating work; it appeals warmly to the sensibilities of the young of her own sex: its sketches of adventures, characters and pictures, are racy and fresh; and the sympathy with the secret sorrows of the writer is ingeniously kept alive to the end. Her second work was "Memoirs of Celebrated Female Sovereigns," in two volumes, published in London, in 1831. To this she gave her name. With much to commend, these

Memoirs" are unsatisfactory, because the writer bases her plan on a wrong principle, namely, the inferiority of the female sex to the male. Mrs. Jameson adopts the philosophy of men, which places reason as the highest human attribute; the Word of God gives us another standard; there we are taught that moral goodness is the highest perfection of human nature.

In other portions of our work,* we have explained our views on these questions, and only remark here, that Mrs. Jameson seems, while writing these "Memoirs of Queens," to have attempted, by her deep humility as a woman to propitiate her male critics on behalf of the author.

In 1832, appeared" Characteristics of Women, Moral, Poetical, and Historical;" in many respects this is the best and most finished production of Mrs. Jameson's genius. "Visits and Sketches at Home and abroad; with Tales and Miscellanies," was published in 1834; and soon afterwards, "Memoirs of the Loves of the Poets," &c., appeared. In the autumn of 1839, Mrs. Jameson visited America; going directly from New York to Toronto, Upper Canada, where she passed the winter. Her husband had been stationed for many years in Canada; she had not seen him since her marriage; it has been said that they parted at the altar; but the painful circumstance that they only met as acquaintances, not even as friends, was too well known to require an apology for stating it here. Yet we would not allude to this but for the sake of correcting the false impressions which some of her late works leave on the mind to mislead the judgment of young read"Winter Studies and Summer Rambles," is the title of the work published in 1842, in which Mrs. Jameson records her observations on Canada and the United States, as far as she travelled. The shadow over these original and spirited pictures is unhappiness in wedded life! Everywhere she finds marriage a slavery, a sin, or a

ers.

See General Preface," also "Remarks on the Fourth Era," and "Sketch of Queen Victoria."

sorrow The shaft in her own bosom she plants in that of every other married pair; like a person afflicted with a painful disease, she hears only of the afflicted, and fancies the world to be a hospital of incurables. As we observed in the beginning, the cloud over her early life has darkened her spirit. She has, naturally, a love for the innocent and the pure, is a true woman in her warm sympathies with her sex, and had she been fortunate (like Mrs. Howitt) in the connexion which possessed for her, as it does for the noblest and purest of both sexes, the holiest elements of happiness and the best opportunities of self-improvement, she would have been a shining light in the onward movement of Christian civilization; she would have devoted her heart and her genius to the True and the Good, instead of bowing her woman's soul to man's philosophy, and deifying the worship of the Beautiful in Art. In this work"Winter Studies," &c., Mrs. Jameson, commenting on the gratitude due those great and pure men, who work out the intellectual and spiritual good of mankind, closes thus:-"Such was the example left by Jesus Christ-such a man was Shakspeare - such a man was Goëthe!" To understand the depth of this moral bewilderment, which could class Goëthe with the Saviour, we will insert from the volume which contains the shocking comparison, her own account of the last mental effort of her German idol.

"The second part of the Faust occupied Goëthe during the last years of his life; he finished it at the age of eighty-two. On completing it, he says, 'Now I may consider the remainder of my existence as a free gift, and it is indifferent whether I do any thing or not;' as if he had considered his whole former life as held conditionally, binding him to execute certain objects to which he believed himself called. He survived the completion of the Faust only one year.

"The purport of the second part of Faust has puzzled many German and English scholars, and in Germany there are already treatises and commentaries on it, as on the Divina Commedia. I never read it, and if I had, would not certainly venture an opinion where doctors disagree;' but I recollect that Von Hammer once gave me, in his clear, animated manner, a comprehensive analysis of this wonderful production—that is, according to his own interpretation of it. I regard it,' said he, as being from beginning to end a grand poetical piece of irony on the whole universe, which is turned, as it were, wrong side out. In this point of view I understand it; in any other point of view it appears to me incomprehensible.'"

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The next work of Mrs. Jameson was "Sacred and Legendary Art," two volumes, published in London in 1848, in which the peculiar tastes and talents of the authoress had a fine scope, and deserve what has been freely awarded her, high praise. The sequel, "Legends of the Monastic Orders," one volume, published in 1850, is tinctured with the same false views noticed in some of her previous works. She seems quite inclined to forgive, if not to justify, all the profligacy, ignorance, and errors which monkery engendered and

entailed on the Christian world-because these institutions preserved and ennobled works of art! As an author there is a false air of eloquence thrown over some of her writings, even where simplicity would be more suitable. Generally, in her descriptive passages, there is something pantomimic, theatric, unreal; everything figures in a scenic manner. She is, no doubt, a sincere lover of pictures, probably understands them better than most connoisseurs, but readers tire of " Raphaels and Correggios," when too often thrown in their faces, and call them "stuff."

Now that we have honestly stated what we do not like in Mrs. Jameson's books, we are happy to dwell on their merits, and the many commendable qualities of the authoress, which these suggest. She has an earnest and loving admiration for genius, a discriminating sense of the benefits it confers upon the world, and an unselfish eagerness to point out its merits and services. All this is seen in her very pleasing descriptions of the many celebrated men and women she had encountered. She has a deep sense of the dignity of her own sex; she seeks to elevate woman, and many of her reflections on this subject are wise and salutary. We differ from her views in some material points, but we believe her sincerely devoted to what she considers the way of improvement. Of her extraordinary talents there can be no doubt.

From "Visits and Sketches," &c. ARTISTS.

I have heard young artists say, that they have been forced on a dissipated life merely as a means of "getting on in the world" as the phrase is. It is so base a plea, that I generally regard it as the excuse for dispositions already perverted. The men who talk thus are doomed; they will either creep through life in mediocrity and dependence to the grave; or, at the best, if they have parts as well as cunning and assurance, they may make themselves the fashion, and make their fortune; they may be clever portrait painters and bustmakers, but when they attempt to soar into the ideal department of their art, they move the laughter of Gods and men; to them higher, holier fountains of inspiration are thenceforth sealed.

That man of genius who thinks he can tamper with his glorious gifts, and for a season indulge in social excess, stoop from his high calling to the dregs of earth, abandon himself to his native powers to bring himself up again; O believe it, he plays a desperate game! One that in nearly ninety-nine cases out of one hundred is fatal.

WOMEN ARTISTS- SINGERS

ACTRESSES, &c.

To think of the situation of these women! And then to look upon those women who, fenced in from infancy by all the restraints, the refinements, the comforts, the precepts of good society - the one arranging a new cap- - the other embroidering a purse - the third reading a novel — far, far removed from want, and grief, and care-now sitting in judgment, and passing sentence of excommunication on others of their sex, who have

been steeped in excitement from childhood, their nerves for ever in a state of terror between severe application and maddening flattery; cast on the world without chart or compass with energies misdirected, passions uncontrolled, and all the inflammable and imaginative part of their being cultivated to excess as part of their profession— of their material! Oh, when will there be charity in the world? When will human beings, women especially, show mercy and justice to each other, and not judge of results without a reference to causes ?"

FEMALE GAMBLER.

Unless I could know what were the previous habits and education of the victim-through what influences, blessed or unblessed, her mind had been trained her moral existence built up ought I to condemn ? Who had taught this woman self-knowledge? Who had instructed her in the elements of her own being, and guarded her against her own excitable temperament? What friendly voice had warned her ignorance? What weariness of spirit- what thankless husband or faithless lover had driven her to the edge of the precipice?

M. You would then plead for a female gambler? A. Why do you lay such an emphasis on female gambler? In what respect is a female gambler worse than a male? The case is more pitiable more rare therefore, perhaps, more shocking; but why more hateful?

ENGLISH PRIDE.

It is this cold impervious pride which is the perdition of us English, and of England. I remember, that in one of my several excursions on the Rhine, we had on board the steamboat an English family of high rank. There was the lordly papa, plain and shy, who never spoke to any one except his own family, and then only in the lowest whisper. There was the lady mamma, so truly lady-like, with fine-cut patrician features, and in her countenance a kind of passive hauteur, softened by an appearance of suffering, and ill health. There were two daughters, proud, pale, fine-looking girls, dressed à ravir, with that indescribable air of high pretension, so elegantly impassive- -so self-possessed - which some people call l'air distingué, but which, as extremes meet, I would rather call the refinement of vulgarity — the polish we see bestowed on debased materialthe plating over the steel-the stucco over the brick-work!

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THE DUTY OF TRAVELLERS.

Every feeling, well educated, generous, and truly refined woman, who travels, is as a dove sent out on a mission of peace; and should bring back at least an olive-leaf in her hand, if she bring nothing else. It is her part to soften the intercourse between rougher and stronger natures; to aid in the interfusion of the gentler sympathies; to speed the interchange of art and literature from pole to pole: not to pervert wit, and talent, and eloquence, and abuse the privileges of her sex, to

sow the seeds of hatred where she might plant those of love to embitter national discord and aversion, and disseminate individual prejudice and error.

CONVERSATION.

Conversation may be compared to a lyre with seven chords-philosophy, art, poetry, politics, love, scandal, and the weather. There are some professors, who, like Paganini, “can discourse most eloquent music" upon one string only; and some who can grasp the whole instrument, and with a master's hand sound it from the top to the bottom of its compass. Now, Schlegel is one of the latter he can thunder in the bass or caper in the treble; he can be a whole concert in himself.

From "The Loves of the Poets"

The theory, then, which I wish to illustrate, as far as my limited powers permit, is this: That where a woman has been exalted above the rest of her sex by the talents of a lover, and consigned to enduring fame and perpetuity of praise, the passion was real, and was merited; that no deep or lasting interest was ever founded in fancy or in fiction; that truth, in short, is the basis of all excellence in amatory poetry, as in every thing else; for where truth is, there is good of some sort, and where there is truth and good, there must be beauty, there must be durability of fame. Truth is the golden chain which links the terrestrial with the celestial, which sets the seal of heaven on the things of this earth, and stamps them with immortality."

From

"Winter Studies and Summer Rambles."
EDUCATION.

The true purpose of education is to cherish and unfold the seed of immortality already sown within us; to develop, to their fullest extent, the capacities of every kind with which the God who made us has endowed us. Then we shall be fitted for all circumstances, or know how to fit circumstances to ourselves. Fit us for circumstances! Base and mechanical! Why not set up at once a "fabrique d' education," and educate us by steam? The human soul, be it man's or woman's, is not, I suppose, an empty bottle, into which you shall pour and cram just what you like, and as you like; nor a plot of waste soil, in which you shall sow what you like; but a divine, a living germ planted by an Almighty hand, which you may, indeed. render more or less productive, or train to this or that form- -no more. And when you have taken the oak sapling, and dwarfed it, and pruned it. and twisted it, into an ornament for the jardinière in your drawing-room, much have you gained truly; and a pretty figure your specimen is like to make in the broad plain and under the free air of heaven.

The cultivation of the moral strength and the active energies of a woman's mind, together with the intellectual faculties and tastes, will not make a woman a less good, less happy wife and mother. and will enable her to find content and independ ence when denied love and happiness.