hich her less
ardent nature was capable. The collection of letters in which the
sentiment and its manifold workings are enshrined, created, as
Lamartine says in his eloquent sketch, a new species of literature,
and formed an epoch in authorship. "The genius of the hearth held the
pen, and the heart flowed through it. The literature of the family,
or confidential conversation written out, began. It is the classic of
closed doors."

This friendship had an earthly close worthy of its progress. For,
when Madame de Grignan was attacked by a dangerous and lingering
malady, her mother watched incessantly by her bedside, as she had
formerly watched by her cradle. After three months of sleepless care,
she had the joy of seeing the beloved patient return to life; but she
had given her own in exchange. "Intense affection alone seemed to
have enabled her to retain existence until the convalescence of
Madame de Grignan, when it fled, having fulfilled its last object
upon earth. She expired in the arms of her daughter, and surrounded
by her weeping grandchildren. Her last glance fell upon the being
enshrined in her soul, and restored to health by her care. She was
interred in the chapel of the Chateau de Grignan. But her letters are
her true and living sepulchre. Grignan holds her body; but her
correspondence contains her soul."

Another fine example of a noble and glowing friendship between a
mother and her daughter is furnished by Madame de Rambouillet and
Julie d'Angenne. They were equally endowed with loveliness of person,
attractiveness of mind, elevation of character, and perfection of
manners. They were the magic centres of every circle in which they
moved together. When the plague, of which all Paris was in terror,
seized Madame de Rambouillet's youngest son, she nursed him; and
Julie shut herself in the room with them till the boy died. The sweet
harmony of their souls and intercourse was unmarred, unalloyed, in
life and in death. Some mothers make slaves of their daughters; some
are slaves to them; some even find rivals in them. Some are prevented
from forming friendships, by tyranny on one side or by
insubordination on the other; by selfishness there or by
heartlessness here. Envy, vanity, fickleness, spite, festering
incompatibilities of character, often prove fatal in these veiled and
intimate relations. But when the characters of mother and daughter
are happy accords, or accurate counterparts, rich, lofty, ardent, an