tempt for their ignorance
and pride.--A noble but illiterate lady.--Deference paid to her.--Habits
of reflection.

The influence of those intense emotions which were excited in the
bosom of Jane by the scenes which she witnessed in her childhood in
the nunnery were never effaced from her imaginative mind. Nothing can
be conceived more strongly calculated to impress the feelings of a
romantic girl, than the poetic attractions which are thrown around the
Roman Catholic religion by nuns, and cloisters, and dimly-lighted
chapels, and faintly-burning tapers, and matins, and vespers, and
midnight dirges. Jane had just the spirit to be most deeply captivated
by such enchantments. She reveled in those imaginings which clustered
in the dim shades of the cloister, in an ecstasy of luxurious
enjoyment. The ordinary motives which influence young girls of her age
seem to have had no control over her. Her joys were most highly
intellectual and spiritual, and her aspirations were far above the
usual conceptions of childhood. She, for a time, became entirely
fascinated by the novel scenes around her, and surrendered her whole
soul to the dominion of the associations with which she was engrossed.
In subsequent years, by the energies of a vigorous philosophy, she
disenfranchised her intellect from these illusions, and, proceeding to
another extreme, wandered in the midst of the cheerless mazes of
unbelief; but her fancy retained the traces of these early impressions
until the hour of her death. Christianity, even when most heavily
encumbered with earthly corruption, is infinitely preferable to no
religion at all. Even papacy has never swayed so bloody a scepter as
infidelity.

Jane remained in the convent one year, and then, with deep regret,
left the nuns, to whom she had become extremely attached. With one of
the sisters, who was allied to the nobility, she formed a strong
friendship, which continued through life. For many years she kept up a
constant correspondence with this friend, and to this correspondence
she attributes, in a great degree, that facility in writing which
contributed so much to her subsequent celebrity. This letter-writing
is one of the best schools of composition, and the parent who is
emulous of the improvement of his children in that respect, will do
all in his power to encourage the constant use of the pen in these
familiar epistles. Thus the most important study, the study of the
power of expression, is co