phy of this mysterious ascendancy, she was content to employ it
for the noblest ends. It contributed, no doubt, to deepen the effect of
her instructions."

This is critical rather than enthusiastic praise, and therefore the more
worthy to be trusted. Nor are all Mrs. Washington's virtues here set
down. She was a woman of exemplary piety of the good old quietist
school; she was religious without being theological. She was a notable
housewife and manager, and she earned the fine old title of "lady" by
being indeed an almsgiver, though her lack of wealth limited her power
in this respect. Her already quoted biographer, in her somewhat stilted
but earnest language, says: "Her charity to the poor was well known; and
having not wealth to distribute, it was necessary that what her
benevolence dispensed should be supplied by domestic economy and
industry. How peculiar a grace," adds our biographer, with well
modulated enthusiasm, "does this impart to the benefits flowing from a
sympathizing heart!"

La Fayette said of Madam Washington that she belonged to the times of
Sparta and ancient Rome rather than to those of his own day; and Mrs.
Sigourney, whose fame as a poet has now failed, but who once was held in
high esteem, thus wrote on the occasion of laying the cornerstone for
the monument erected at Fredericksburg:

"Methinks we see thee, as in olden times,
Simple in garb, majestic and serene,
Unawed by 'pomp and circumstance' in truth
Inflexible and with a Spartan zeal
Repressing vice and making folly grave.
Thou didst not deem it woman's part to waste
Life in inglorious sloth, to sport awhile
Amid the flowers, or on the summer wave,
Then fleet like the ephemeron away,
Building no temple in her children's hearts,
Save to the vanity and pride of life
Which she had worshipped."

Better sentiment than poetry, perhaps; but serving to show concerning
Mary Washington the thought of a day nearer to her, and therefore truer
in judgment than our own.

Withal, Madam Washington was a woman of the most perfect simplicity of
bearing and of character. When her illustrious son returned to her after
leading the armies of his country to their final victory, she talked
with him of his perils and privations, of old friends, of her home and
affairs; but said no word of the glory which he had won. To her he was
still her son, and not the great