e
first victim, soothed and supported the trembling old man, saw him
perish, then calmly bared her neck to the knife.

In one of De Tocqueville's letters to the illustrious Madame
Swetchine occurs a passage marked by rare insight and weight. The
noble writer urges that the clergy, without teaching special
political doctrines, ought to instill into their hearers certain
grand sentiments and loyalties, such as the feeling that every man
belongs more to collective humanity than he does to himself. He then
adds this impressive testimony: "During my somewhat long experience
of public life, nothing has struck me more than the influence of
women in developing public spirit--an influence the greater because
indirect. I do not hesitate to say, that they give to every nation a
moral temperament, which is shown in its politics. A hundred times I
have seen weak men becoming of real political value, because they had
by their side women who supported them, not by advice as to
particulars, but by fortifying their feelings, and directing their
ambition. More frequently, I must confess, I have seen the domestic
influence gradually transforming a man, naturally noble and generous,
into a cowardly, commonplace, selfish office-seeker, thinking of
public affairs merely as a means of making himself comfortable; and
this, simply by daily contact with a well-conducted woman, a faithful
wife, an excellent mother, from whose mind the grand notion of public
duty was entirely absent."

The hardening exposures, the gnawing jealousies, of overmuch
fashionable society, with its shallow and bitter emulations, do far
more to contract and sour the spirit of woman, to falsify and deprave
her heart, to belittle and spoil her mind, to degrade and veneer her
character, than any professional career can well be supposed to do.
It cannot be doubted, that many a woman, who displays herself, as
good as naked, in brilliant drawing-room assemblies, spends half her
existence in the frivolity of crowded dinners, suppers, and balls, is
more corrupted and bronzed than she could be by studying medicine,
theology, jurisprudence, or political economy, and taking a zealous
part in the affairs of her country. Let not the greater and nearer
evil be neglected in a prejudiced imagination of a lesser and remoter
one. Where do you find an exterior of politeness covering an interior
of indifference or guile? a flaming demonstrativeness in front of a
soul of ice? a beautiful s