The intercourse thus renewed was not likely speedily to terminate. In the following spring she resided for nearly four weeks under his roof, and thus opportunity was afforded for intimate acquaintance. His first impressions were amply confirmed. Amiability, disinterestedness, generosity, and artlessness, were eminently conspicuous, and her aptitude for domestic duties indicated the just views she entertained of their relation to social comfort.

The design of this book, however, is not to erect a monument to the departed, much less to magnify her virtues, but to furnish such a record of her character, aspirations, and attainments, as may animate our daughters to aspire to excellencies which will qualify them to adorn and bless the world. Miss Hessel's chief excellencies were such as lie within the reach of all. She owed much, doubtless, to original endowment, but more to self-culture. Few educated persons were less indebted to preceptors. In common with most young people she was the subject of foolish notions, and injudicious habits. Happily, as she approached womanhood, she discovered and endeavoured to remedy them. Soliciting divine assistance, she resolutely determined to attain the nobility of a true woman, and she succeeded. It would have required a sagacity more than ordinary to discern the woman of five and twenty in the girl of fifteen.

The man of science can analyze the ingredients entering into the composition of a plant, but where is the moral. chemist who shall tell us all that has contributed to the formation of any human character? Facts are not wanting, however, to enable us to form a sufficiently accurate estimate of the influences operating upon Miss Hessel's youth, and the peculiarities of her mental and moral nature.

Her reflective powers were early developed. Often might she have been seen wandering in the neighbouring lane wrapt in deep thought. What could those bright objects

YOUTHFUL CHARACTERISTICS.

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be above, which we called stars? How could the Almighty always have existed? Why was evil permitted, and why, in particular, were so many vexations allowed to cross her path? How could the permission of such facts accord with infinite benevolence? These were some of the questions which taxed and troubled that young brain. As a natural consequence she eagerly thirsted after knowledge. Unfortunately she had access to but few suitable books. Had she been supplied at this period with a literature adapted to her requirements, the growth of her powers. would no doubt have been materially promoted. A large social as well as personal benefit would be conferred, if those who have interesting and instructive books lying useless on their shelves, would send them on a temporary visit to young persons similarly circumstanced to Eliza Hessel.

Inquisitiveness was associated with intense susceptibility. The sigh of the storm she regarded as celestial music. As her slender form staggered under its violence, she would exultingly repeat

"O! I love the winds when they spurn control

For they suit my own bond-hating soul;

I like to hear them sweeping past,

Like the eagle's pinions, free and fast ;
But a pang will rise with sad alloy,

To soften my spring and sink my joy,

When I think how dismal their voices must be

To a mother who hath a child at sea!"

It cannot surprise us that her broodings often stirred the profoundest depths of her soul. Judge of a girl of sixteen pacing the long garden walks in the cold moonlight, sitting down on the ground, and clasping her hands, uttering in a voice of such passionate earnestness, as even startled herself: "I would gladly die this moment to solve that problem." That girl could be no cipher in the world. She

could be no mere unit. For good or evil, she was destined to exert considerable influence.

Her love for poetry, for flowers, for everything beautiful in nature or in art, amounted to a passion.

Of course, the books she read left deep traces on her mind. With a retentive memory, and a vivid imagination,

she became almost a reflection of the writers she loved. It was easy, at that period, to discover her literary companionships.

One illustration of her high spirit is well remembered. She was a pupil, and not beyond her eighth year. In the master's temporary absence one day, some occurrence had transpired which kindled his displeasure. He deemed Eliza's younger sister to be chief culprit, and ordered her into the "naughty corner." Eliza, knowing her sister's innocence, rose from her seat, marched boldly forth, brought away the victim, and with defiant majesty exclaimed: "My sister shall not be put into the corner." Acquiescence, however unmagisterial, was deemed prudent.

Her sensitive nature could not fail, under ordinary circumstances, to secure exquisite enjoyment; neither could it fail to induce occasional despondency. She was no exception to the doctrine set forth in Burns' well-known lines

"Chords that vibrate sweetest pleasure,
Thrill with deepest notes of woe."

A glance at that pale countenance was enough to satisfy any intelligent observer that the activity of the brain was morbid. For many nights in succession sleep refused its visit for hours after her retirement. Instead of acting as a check to the pernicious practice of late study, this unhappily promoted it. Rapid growth contributed to physical debility, and caused her to suffer much from tic-doloreux at one period, whilst the remedy employed was almost as mischievous as the disease. from the nervous irritability which it caused.

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13

As a natural consequence many occurrences, domestic and providential, wore a chilling and gloomy aspect. Mentioning, later in life, some unwelcome experiences of which she was then the subject, she says to Mrs. W: "All this may seem very strange to you, but it would not, if you could read my mental history-if you knew what formed and educated my childhood-the utter want of companionship I experienced-the delicate and sickly form, which for many years was the tabernacle of a shrinking, sensitive spirit, whose aliment was the sublime but mysterious images of revelation, the allegories of Bunyan, and such poetry and fiction as came in its path. I spoke of want of companionship, but mine was with the deep woods, or beside a lonely pond under a large ash tree, whose music, as the wind swept it, I can now recal-shunned by and shunning those of my own age, whose kindness was almost as offensive to me as their ridicule or contempt. At an age when most children are revelling in the sunshine of their own joyous natures, I was revolving, in my unnaturally excited and fevered mind, such themes as the existence of God, the strange enigma of my own being and destiny, and sometimes, I could weep to remember it, whispering in the depths of my dark heart, 'There is no God.' And when the fearful lie was returned to me, I added, but he cannot be just and good, or he would not see me suffering and oppressed without avenging me.''

It must be confessed that her parents had an onerous charge. And yet it was a highly interesting one. One of the most interesting spectacles on earth is that of a mind in a state like hers-full of deep questionings and lofty aspirations—eager after truth, but unwilling to accept it without scrutiny. Should not such minds excite our deep sympathy? Should not their inquiries be judiciously excited, rather than frowningly repressed? Should not we, who are parents, encourage our children to confide to us the

strange, perplexing thoughts, which often haunt them, but which they shrink from disclosing? Who can estimate the number of melancholy moral wrecks occasioned by the chilling repulses with which sincere, though adventurous, inquirers have been met? I do not wonder that immediately after the paragraph just quoted, Miss Hessel should have added: "Since I have grown up, I had always an intense sympathy with Byron's childhood." It makes one almost tremble to think what might have been the issue, had she been similarly treated. It is not without solicitude one asks: What will the issue be? Shall those mental and moral materials be one day formed into a noble structure, or shall they become a mis-shapen and repulsive mass? Hope pronounces favourably, and faith endorses the reply.

The circumstances amid which she was placed, were on the whole, highly favourable. Retirement was essential to the right formation of her character. Catterton, her birthplace, furnished it. It is a small hamlet, lying at the distance of three miles north of Tadcaster, consisting of ten or twelve houses, four of which were occupied by labourers. The society of such a place presented nothing of peril to her nature. Additional stimulus to her social powers would undoubtedly have been beneficial, physically and mentally. Many an hour of gloom would have been exchanged for sunshine. But the evil of town-residence to most young persons is, that the social faculties are stimulated to excess. Hence, the dissipation and frivolity which so generally prevail, and which cannot be sufficiently lamented. Would she not, however, in the event of such a residence, have been spared those perplexing doubts-that long mental disquietude? Probably she would, but the benefit of that may be justly doubted. The discipline through which she passed, every person must more or less experience, who would have a faith alike intelligent and firm. Truly is it said by the biographer of the late Rev. John Smith: "No