Project Gutenberg's Lives of Celebrated Women, by Samuel Griswold Goodrich

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Title: Lives of Celebrated Women

Author: Samuel Griswold Goodrich

Release Date: July 27, 2010 [EBook #33273]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration: FERDINAND AND ISABELLA.]

LIVES
OF
CELEBRATED WOMEN:

BY THE AUTHOR OF
PETER PARLEY'S TALES.

BOSTON:
BRADBURY, SODEN & CO.
MDCCCXLIV.

Entered according to Act of Congress,
in the year 1844,
By S. G. GOODRICH,
In the Clerk's Office of the District
Court of Massachusetts.

STEREOTYPED AT THE
BOSTON TYPE AND STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY.

WM. A. HALL & CO., PRINTERS,
12 Water Street.

PREFACE.

It is an oft-quoted proposition of Rousseau, that "the glory of
woman lies in being unknown." If this be true, we shall deserve
little credit for placing before the world these brief sketches of a
few of the sex who have acquired celebrity among mankind. We are
disposed to think, however, that the oracular words of the Genevan
philosopher--though they may coincide with the despotism of the lords
of creation, who would arrogate, not merely the sceptre of power, but
the trump of fame, entirely to themselves--like most other oracles,
are liable to many exceptions.

It may indeed be true that the _happiness_ of women is generally to be
found in the quiet of the domestic circle; but that all, without
distinction, should be confined to it, and that whenever one of the
sex departs from it, she departs from her allotted sphere, is no more
true than a similar proposition would be of men. Elizabeth of England,
though little to be esteemed as a woman, did as much credit to her sex
as her father did to his; and while he enjoys the renown of having
achieved the reformation in England, she is entitled to the credit of
having been not only his superior as a sovereign, but one of the
greatest sovereigns th