ion of
rank.

We, the children of the house, stood in fact upon the very happiest tier
in the scaffolding of society for all good influences. The prayer of
Agar--"Give me neither poverty nor riches"--was realized for us. That
blessing had we, being neither too high nor too low; high enough we were
to see models of good manners; obscure enough to be left in the sweetest
of solitudes. Amply furnished with the nobler benefits of wealth, _extra_
means of health, of intellectual culture, and of elegant enjoyment, on
the other hand, we knew nothing of its social distinctions. Not depressed
by the consciousness of privations too sordid, not tempted into
restlessness by the consciousness of privileges too aspiring, we had no
motives for shame, we had none for pride. Grateful also to this hour I am,
that, amidst luxuries in all things else, we were trained to a Spartan
simplicity of diet--that we fared, in fact, very much less sumptuously
than the servants. And if (after the model of the emperor Marcus Aurelius)
I should return thanks to Providence for all the separate blessings of my
early situation, these four I would single out as chiefly worthy to be
commemorated--that I lived in the country; that I lived in solitude; that
my infant feelings were moulded by the gentlest of sisters, not by horrid
pugilistic brothers; finally, that I and they were dutiful children of a
pure, holy, and magnificent church.

* * * * *

The earliest incidents in my life which affected me so deeply as to be
rememberable at this day, were two, and both before I could have completed
my second year, viz. a remarkable dream of terrific grandeur about a
favourite nurse, which is interesting for a reason to be noticed
hereafter; and secondly, the fact of having connected a profound sense of
pathos with the re-appearance, very early in spring, of some crocuses.
This I mention as inexplicable, for such annual resurrections of plants
and flowers affect us only as memorials, or suggestions of a higher
change, and therefore in connexion with the idea of death; but of death I
could, at that time, have had no experience whatever.

This, however, I was speedily to acquire. My two eldest sisters--eldest of
three _then_ living, and also elder than myself--were summoned to an early
death. The first who died was Jane--about a year older than myself. She
was three and a half, I two and a half, _plus_ or _minus_ some trifle that
I do