ents of character of the remark of Napoleon, when
some one said, in his presence, "It is nothing but imagination."
"Nothing but imagination!" replied this sagacious observer;
"_imagination rules the world!_"

These dim visions of greatness, these lofty aspirations, not for
renown, but for the inward consciousness of intellectual elevation, of
moral sublimity, of heroism, had no influence, as is ordinarily the
case with day-dreams, to give Jane a distaste for life's energetic
duties. They did not enervate her character, or convert her into a
mere visionary; on the contrary, they but roused and invigorated her
to alacrity in the discharge of every duty. They led her to despise
ease and luxury, to rejoice in self-denial, and to cultivate, to the
highest possible degree, all her faculties of body and of mind, that
she might be prepared for any possible destiny. Wild as, at times, her
imaginings might have been, her most vivid fancy never could have
pictured a career so extraordinary as that to which reality introduced
her; and in all the annals of ancient story, she could find no record
of sufferings and privations more severe than those which she was
called upon to endure. And neither heroine nor hero of any age has
shed greater luster upon human nature by the cheerful fortitude with
which adversity has been braved.

CHAPTER II.

YOUTH.

Convent life.--Its influence upon Jane.--Jane leaves the convent.--Her
attachment to one of the nuns.--Jane partakes of the Lord's
Supper.--Preparations for the solemnity.--Jane's delight in
meditation.--Departure from the convent.--Jane goes to live with her
grandmother.--Character of the latter.--Jane's intellectual
progress.--Her father's delight.--Jane learns to engrave.--Her mother
impatient for her return.--The visit to Madame De Boismorel.--Remarks
of servants.--Appearance of Madame De Boismorel.--Her reception of the
visitors.--Madame De Boismorel's volubility.--Jane's dignified
rejoinders.--Jane's indignation.--She visits Versailles.--Jane's
disgust at palace life.--She resorts to the gardens.--Characteristic
remark.--Jane's meditations.--Jane returns home.--Her manner of
reading.--Jane devotes herself to domestic duties.--She goes to
market.--Jane's aptitude for domestic duties.--From the study to the
kitchen.--Domestic education.--Dissolute lives of the Catholic
clergy.--New emotions.--Insolence of the aristocracy.--Jane's
indignation.--New acquaintances.--Jane's con