Catharine Maria Sedgwick

“ The maniac fell on her knees—Jane knelt beside her: she had caught a spark of her companion's enthusiasm. The singularity of her situation, the beauty of the night, the novelty of the place, on which the moon now riding high in the heavens poured a flood of silver light, all conspired to give a high tone to her feelings. It is not strange she should have thought she never heard any thing so sublime as the prayer of her crazed conductor—who raised her arms and poured out her soul in passages of scripture the most sublime and striking, woven together by her own glowing language. ”

“ Falkenstein village, close under the castle, looked like a brood of chickens huddled under its mother's wing. Kronberg and its towers were in shadow; but the vast plain beyond was bathed in light, and the Main and the Rhine were sparkling in the distance. All around me was a scene of savage Nature in her stern strength, all beyond of her motherly plentiful production. I counted eighteen villages; a familiar eye would probably have seen twice as many more. They are not easily distinguished from the earth, with which their colour blends harmoniously. ”

“ He placed his finger on his lips by way of an admonition to silence, and said softly to Jane, "For the love of Heaven, come to my house to-night; you may save life; tell no one, and come after the family is in bed."
"But, John, I do not know the way to your house," replied Jane, amazed at the strange request.
"You shall have a guide, Miss. Don't be afraid; 'tis not like you to be afraid, when there is good to be done; and I tell you, you may save life; and every one that knows me, knows I never tell a lie for any body." ”

“ The harvesting and hay-making just begun, but not a blade yet taken off the piled lap of mother earth. At our feet were the peasants' dwellings, little brown cottages, almost hidden in fruit-trees; beyond, the gay villas of the noblesse; and still farther, the lively-looking town of Bonn, with its five-towered Cathedral. Still farther, on one side Cologne, on the other the seven mountains, with the ruins of Drachenfels; fine wide roads—those unquestionable marks of an old civilisation—traversing the country in every direction, and, as far as your eye could reach, that king of roads, the Rhine. ”

“ Do you know who it is?"
"No, ma'am."
"Is it a gentleman?"
"He speaks like one, ma'am."
"You certainly know, Tom—is he a gentleman, or only a man?"
"He is dressed like a man, ma'am."
"Tom, you must get over tormenting me this way: I've told you a hundred times the distinction." Tom smiled. He evidently had in his mind something like the old distinction of the poet, though he could not, or dared not, express it—
"Worth makes the man—the want of it, the fellow."
"Well, well," added Mrs. Finley, "show him in, and tell Mr. Finley." ”

“ Under my window is a garden with grapes, interspersed with fruit-trees and flowers, and enclosed by a white paling, and finishing at each end with the old towers of the castle-wall. Along the narrow road between the garden and the river there are peasant-girls going homeward with baskets of fresh-mown grass on their heads, followed by peasants in their dark blouses, with their sickles swung over their shoulders. Little boats are gliding to and fro, guided, and, as their ringing voices tell you, enjoyed by children. ”

“ Hyde has been a mother to me. She has qualified me to take charge of a family of my own, so that, with the blessing of God, I hope to perform my part well, and to contribute to Charles's prosperity as well as his happiness. Oh, mother, what a happy world this would be if there were plenty such as you and Mrs. Hyde—if the rich and the poor, in their respective stations, felt and acted right. How foolish and wicked are those who try to set one against the other; when, by being friends, and acting in agreement, so much good could be done, so much happiness gained. ”

“ No, no, Sarah, he an't so bad as the Woodhulls, but he has been a wilful spoilt child from the beginning: he is a comely man to look to, and he has a glib tongue in his head; but he is all for self—all for self, Sarah. You might as well undertake to make the stiff branches of that old oak tender and pliable as the sprouts of the sapling that grows beside it, as to expect Miss Jane can alter Erskine. No—he alone can do it with whom all things are possible. We have no right to expect a miracle. ”

“ Our youthful readers have, we trust, been entire strangers to those joys that are preceded by suffering, and which remind us of some clouds that send down their showers after the sun has broken through. They would have been as much surprised as were Edward and Julia, if they had seen, instead of smiles and ecstasies, the deathlike paleness of Mrs. Barton, her husband dashing the tear from his eyes that he might gaze upon his children; Dickey looking timidly at him, and the little girl burying her face in her mother's gown. Yet this was joy—joy that no words could express ”

“ It has been one of the purest of summer afternoons, and we had a delicious stroll up to the ruins; a world of beauty there is "within the small compass of that mount. Fancy a hill rising from the bosom of meadows as our Laurel Hill does, but twice as high and twice as steep, with a path winding round it, every foot of cultivable earth covered with grape-vines,-having shrines chiselled in the rocks, and crucifixes and madonnas for the devout. ”

“ So the good goes with the bad. It is a pity we have not a moral flail; but, as of old, the tares and the wheat are too intricately intermingled for human art to separate them. I promised to spare you the churches of Cologne, but I cannot pass by the Cathedral. It would be as bad as the proverbial leaving out Hamlet from the enacting of his own tragedy. The Cologne Cathedral is not, and probably never will be, finished. It impressed me anew with a conviction of the immortality of the human mind. ”

“ I like this story better than that in Schiller's ballad of the "Lord of Falkenstein." One does not like to mar such a scene as this with the spectre of a treacherous and cruel lover, or to remember, amid this rural peace and beauty, that there are sweet deceived young mothers, whose spirits brood over the graves of the children they in madness murdered. And who that has seen Retzsch's exquisite sketch of the peasant-girl of Falkenstein can forget it? We were there just before sunset. The little stone-built village lay in the deep shadow of the woodland steep which is crowned by the castle. ”

“ Half the fine gentlemen and nervous ladies in our city would have been thrown into fits or fevers by one such meal. The poor are saved by the invigorating effect of labour in the open air—when they are saved—but sickness and death often ensue.
"Among all our benevolent societies, I wish there was one for teaching the poor the arts of health—to begin with cooking well plain food. Why, if our poor knew how to manage their means of health and comfort, they might live as if they were in paradise. A sound mind in a sound body will make almost a paradise even of this rough-going world." ”

“ Mother, are not words very poor to express our strongest feelings? I seem always to be struck dumb when my heart is fullest, and now, when the time has come when I may suitably tell you how dearly I love Charles, how truly I have loved him ever since the cold morning he left us the loaf of bread, it seems as if the words I use every day, and in relation to other persons, were not strong enough to express a feeling so much stronger than any other. ”

“ I knew Sally Wilton was a gay thoughtless thing; but so were most girls, and I believed that when she was married, she would do her duty; to me it seemed, that duty would be all pleasure with such a husband as Richard. I had some struggles with my own heart, but before the morning light dawned, I had made up my mind what to do. When I met Richard and his mother in the morning, I was far the happiest of the three. She was angry, he was sullen and downcast; but I had that feeling which I need not describe to you ma'am, who have so often the power and the will to make others happy. ”

“ Lloyd was really a disinterested man. He had so long made it a rule to imitate the Parent of the universe, in still educing good from evil, that, in every trial of his life, it was his first aim to ascertain his duty, and then to perform it. He could weave the happiness of others, even though no thread of his own was in the fabric. In the present case, he resolved still to watch over Jane; to win the friendship of Erskine, to endeavour to rectify his principles, to exert over him an insensible influence, and, if possible, to render him more worthy of his enviable destiny. ”

“ The labouring classes ought not to lose the pleasures that, in the country, are before them from dawn to twilight—pleasures that might counterbalance, and often do, the profits of the merchant, pent in his city counting-house; and all the honours the lawyer earns between the court-rooms and his office. We only wish that more was made of the privilege of country life; that the farmer's wife would steal some moments from her cares to point out to her children the beauties of nature, whether amid the hills and valleys of our inland country, or on the sublime shores of the ocean. ”

“ Your time, your strength, your ingenuity; a person who will sit by a child and contrive it amusement for half an hour is far more generous than she who goes out with a full purse and buys the same child an expensive toy. Our means of generosity do not depend on our riches—your generosity, dear Lucy, when you have foregone a pleasant walk of a Sunday, and sat down by poor little Jemmie, and made him happy for an hour, has often brought tears to my eyes. ”

“ When I was seven years old, don't laugh at me, Miss Julia, I was called a beauty. My skin was as smooth as yours; and my hair hung in curls about my neck and face. At this time a whimsical gentleman, who had a fancy to bring up a wife to his own liking, came to the alms-house: he was pleased with my appearance, and selected me. ”

“ Jane stared at her cousin, as if she had been smitten with distraction. "Elvira," she said, with more displeasure than was often extorted from her, you are an incurable trifler! How is it possible, that at this time you can waste a thought upon Erskine or his duel?"
"Oh! my spirits run away with me, dear Jane; but I do feel very miserable," she replied, affecting to wipe away the tears from her dry eyes. Poor David!—I am wretched about him. He has disgraced us all. I suppose you have heard, too, about Lavoisier. Every body has heard of mother's cruelty to him and to me. Oh, Jane! ”

“ There is a susceptibility in every human heart to the ever-present and abounding beauties of nature; and whose fault is it that this taste is not awakened and directed? If the poet and the painter cannot bring down their arts to the level of the poor, are there none to be God's interpreters to them—to teach them to read the great book of nature? ”

“ It is our business to sow the seed and till the ground, and then, whether bright or cloudy, the harvest will come in due season. You will have trials, Lucy: your most faithful services may pass without praise, thanks, or even notice—but be patient, my child—toil not for praise—do not shrink from undeserved blame. Be content with the sense of doing your duty—judge yourself honestly, and never forfeit your own self-respect. ”

“ We hope our young readers do not think us so presumptuous as to attempt to give them a description of the Falls of Niagara; one of the sublimest spectacles with which this fair earth is embellished. Neither can we attempt to define the emotions of our travellers. We find in Edward's and Julia's journals, noted with an accuracy and taste that does them great credit, all the constituent parts of this great whole—a poet or a painter might perhaps weave them into a beautiful picture. ”

“ No, no—I shall leave David entirely in the hands of Providence."
"And can you, aunt," said Jane, "acquiesce in your son's being cut off in the spring of life, without an effort to save him—without an effort to procure him a space for repentance and reformation?"
"Do not presume, Jane Elon," replied Mrs. Wilson, "to instruct me in my duties. A space for repentance! A day—an hour—a moment is as good as an eternity for the operations of the Spirit. Many, at the foot of the gallows, have repented, and have died exulting in their pardon and new-born hope." ”

“ When Adéle's friend was gone, and the relics of the supper removed, she said, as if soliloquising, "Oh, how generous madame is—she say to me alway 'Adéle, do with mine as if it were yours.' Ah, she is one angel, madame!"
Lucy understood the drift of this. No one likes to appear a passive dupe; and, nettled at Adéle's thinking her so, she said, in allusion to the Burgundy, "Does Mr. Hartell tell you, Adéle, to do with his as if it were your own?" ”

“ She knew no more of that science which every woman should study, domestic economy, than the Queen of France knew of political economy, when, being told her people were clamorous for bread, she asked, "Why, if there was no bread, did they not give them cake?" Mrs. Ardley believed, in the honesty of her heart, that when she had hired plenty of servants, paid punctually the highest wages, bestowed handsome presents, fed them not only bountifully, but luxuriously, and never scolded, she had performed the whole active and passive duty of a mistress. ”

“ Jane did not join in his laugh; but replied, "There is a book, Edward, that contains the creed of the Quakers; a creed to which they have never presumed to add any thing, nor have they taken any thing from it; the only creed to which they think it right to require the assent of man, and from which no rational man can dissent—that book is the Bible! ”

“ The little girl ran up to her mother's apartment, a back-room on the second floor. "Lucy, my child!" exclaimed her mother, reprovingly, on seeing the loaf of bread. Lucy explained in a low voice, to avoid her father overhearing her, who was lying ill in his bed. Mrs. Lee brushed away a tear. "Did not I always tell you so, mother?" asked Lucy.
"Tell me what?"
"I mean, did not I tell you that boy always looked so kind, and spoke so civil! I knew he was good." Children have an instinct as infallible as a chymical test in detecting the presence of certain qualities. ”

“ Will not our readers pardon Mary, if Mrs. Harvey inferred from the smile of pleasure that brightened her face, that she had sagaciously guessed the truth. Let that be as it may; all parties promised, and what is much more extraordinary, preserved secrecy; and all that was left of Jane's hopes and plans was the consciousness of having acted right—from right motives. Could any one have seen the peacefulness of her heart, he would have pronounced that consciousness a treasure that has no equivalent. ”

“ She, affectionate and ardent in her nature, grew up impetuous and volatile. Instead of 'rocking the cradle of reposing age,' she made the lives of her old parents resemble a fitful April day, sunshine and cloud, succeeding each other in rapid alternation. She loved the old people tenderly—passionately, when she had just received a favour from them; but, like other spoiled children, she never testified that love by deferring her will to theirs, or suffering their wisdom to govern her childish inclinations. ”

“ It seems to me as if it were necessary there should be rich and poor, to make all those seeds of virtue which God has planted—in our hearts spring up and grow. If Mrs. Hyde was not rich, how could she manifest such humility and self-denial, such wise generosity and such wise economy? ”

“ There is no part our country, abundant as it is in the charms of nature, more lavishly adorned with romantic scenery. The carriage slowly traced its way on the side of a mountain, from which the imprisoned road had with difficulty been won;—a noisy stream dashed impetuously along at their left, and as they ascended the mountain, they still heard it before them leaping from rock to rock, now almost losing itself in the deep pathway it had made, and then rushing with increased violence over its stony bed. ”

“ And blessed and kissed by both Bridget and Judy, Lucy set her face homeward, thinking as she went, "Well, mother was right—we can, if we try hard, overcome evil with good, and we can get people to love us if we make the most of our opportunities!" ”

“ Yes, yes, dear Jane, try to be happy, this foolish aunt of yours will try you like the fire, but I look to see you come out of it as gold from the furnace: keep up a good heart, my child, it is a long lane that never turns. ”

“ Then you do not love me, Jane, for love is, and ought to be, blind; but I am willing to make the trial, I will never have it repeated to me, that 'if you knew all, you would withdraw your affections from me.' No one shall say that you have not loved me, with all my youthful follies on my head. I know you are a little puritanical; but that is natural to one who has had so much to make her miserable: the unhappy are apt to affect religion. But you are young and curable, if you can be rescued from this quaker climate and influence. ”