upon her through the involuntary disgrace of M. de Montmorency and Madame de Recamier on her account. On the proscription of these friends, she writes, "I am the Orestes of exile; fatality pursues me throughout my life." Promiscuous association with the world is invariably dangerous, and likely to injure the full development of our powers, when it robs us of those joys which are to be found in solitude and reflection. And it is worthy of remark, that this martyrdom to ennui is an especial feature in the French character. Madame du Deffand and De Bussy likewise complain of it in their memoirs. But the narrowness of thought, and the want of originality in French literature at this period, may partly account for the indifference which Frenchmen manifested with regard to attractions of foreign society. Till the days of Madame de Staël the sentences of their literature had continued to march with the measured routine of Descartes or Bossuet, and every flight of imagination or bold speculation had been restrained by the dread of official interference. It was impossible in one century to break free from the trammels of ages. Many of the barriers were already overthrown, and Parisians were startled with the novelty of theories and convictions which had long been familiar to the freedmen of other countries. But the blessings of emancipation are not to be enjoyed at once. The uneducated laborer, who knows nothing beyond his bread-getting employment and every-day routine, ridicules the philosopher as beside himself. Thus condemnation or contempt for what it cannot understand is amongst one of the most common devices by which folly is wont to veil its ignorance. We have said that the intellect of Madame de Staël was singularly clear; but this clearness may have been owing in part to the narrowness of its range. It may Jortin has authoritatively declared that "no man who is not intelligible can be intelligent;" and in our days Mr. Ruskin makes himself merry as to what he terms the " cloud-worship" of the moderns; whilst Whately speaks scornfully of this "mystical, dim, half-intelligible kind of affected grandeur." But a dim and uncertain method of expression may arise from two causes. either be dated to the imbecility of the writer, who, like a careless watercolor artist, finds it convenient to wash over the form of an object which he cannot define; or from the originality of a genius, who, in the midst of many mortifications and failures, is lighting upon new thoughts which he finds it difficult to explain to contemporaries, but which a future generation may recognise and value. "Les esprits," it has been well remarked, "qui se contentent d'un certain portion étroite et distinct de la vérité acquise, auront toujours beaucoup d'avantage dans la discussion sur ceux qui cherchent dans l'inconnu une vérité plus vaste et plus idéale." The labors of Kant, of Novalis, or of Schiller, in letting down hypotheses as nets to catch truth, or in clearing brushwood from the path in which posterity was to follow, was often a thankless task a labor of faith rather than of sight; but it was abundantly repaid if they chanced in their arduous digging to discover some truth that should "wake to perish never." The history of the short sojourn of Madame de Staël in Germany may prove how strikingly dissimilar was the straightforward, brilliant, but somewhat circumscribed intellect of the accomplished Frenchwoman. In December, 1803, she was introduced by Benjamin Constant into Weimar, where she stormed the inhabitants with her "cannonade of talk." It is ludicrous to read of the astonishment and dismay with which she inspired some lovers of the "golden silence." Heine called her a "whirlwind in petticoats,"—" a Sultana of mind." Schiller and Goethe shrank with horror from a first meeting with a woman whose vocation it was to chatter. Schiller describes her as the "most talkative, the most combative, and the most gesticulative creature" he ever met. He soon found out the limits of her thought, but was fascinated by her frankness and sincerity. "She insists," he said, "on explaining everything, understanding everything, and measuring everything. She admits of no weakness-nothing incommensurable, and where her torch throws no light there nothing can exist. For what we call poetry she has no sense. She does not prize what is false; but does not always admit what is true." un This was startling indeed to the Germans, whose natural element was mystery, and who held that the infinity of truth was fathomable, incomprehensible: the darkness of a full unsearchable sea." Goethe was less gallant than Schiller. He positively refused to come to see her, and made no effort to overcome his prejudice against her. When once in her company he was cold and formal, having been warned that she meant to take down his conversation in short-hand. Though Madame de Staël declared he was un homme d'un esprit prodigieux en conversation," she never saw the real Goethe, or heard him talk at his ease. Perhaps her absence of regularity of feature was an extra impediment to the admiration of the cynical Epicurean, who was accustomed to seek for majesty in the growth of "a soil of meekness,"-though these features must by this time have acquired some of that wonderful fascination which charms us in expressive faces. There is little further to relate of a well-known story. Madame de Staël had a tender heart, and a terrible capability for suffering, but she would not worship a man to ensure the happiness of her life. She would never share in the selfish servility of a people "towards the supposed preferences and aversions" of a temporal master. Social intolerance kills no one in these days, and it is powerless as ever to root out opinions. This woman, weak and murmuring as she was, possessed a character which it was impossible to "maim by compression." To the last she maintained her freedom of conscience, and was stedfast in her own individuality. Suffering drove her for solace to a religion she perhaps never sufficiently valued in the days of her merriment and prosperity. How often it happens that we give at last to heaven an affection which has been wounded and baffled on earth, and yet are not punished for "that impiety." We come heartsore to "drink His cup," because our own ran dry," and yet our thirst is supplied. Madame de Staël could say with thankfulness on her deathbed, "I have been for God, for my father, and for liberty." 66 Yet, though hers was the triumph, Napoleon had his revenge in shortening a weary and somewhat wasted life. After the battle of Waterloo, Madame de Staël returned to her beloved Paris with a worn-out constitution. Little time was left her to taste the delights of conversation which she loved so well. Yet genial to others, and forgetful of herself to the last, she would invite her friends to meet in the room where she lay dying. In this sick chamber Madame Recamier first met Chateaubriand, and the " foundation was laid of their celebrated friendship." Thus Madame de Staël breathed her last in the city which she loved with the devotion of a patriot, solaced by the affection of her friends, and gladdened by the love of her children. Heaven rest her, true woman and honest heart! There was a sense of purpose in her life which could not be marred by its many imperfections. "And I smiled to think His greatness L. S. LXXIII.-REPORT OF THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING THE EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN, FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 24TH, 1862. THE Committee have to record increased ability to afford help to the daily applicants at their office, and extension of employment in many directions, including photography and house decoration, wood-engraving, fern printing as applied to furniture, hairdressing, manuscript and music copying, superintendence of charitable and other institutions, shorthand writing and literary work, glassstaining, and posts connected with the International Exhibition. The late depression in trade has considerably affected the present prospects of the dial-painting pupils; but as their attainments in the art are satisfactory, the Committee have grounds for hoping that when the expected reactionary demand sets in, this experiment will meet with success. In the book-keeping class, the number of pupils during the past year has been forty-one. The number each term has been about VOL. IX. EE eighteen. Nine have gained certificates of competency in arithmetic and book-keeping, and five have obtained situations. The lady who was elected to the Emigration agency being unable to accept the post, the work has been ably and gratuitously carried on by Miss Rye. Since last June, 50 candidates have been sent out to different colonies, and arrangements are being made for 136 to follow. Particulars may be known on application to Miss Rye, 12, Portugal Street, Lincoln's Inn. An Exhibition of novel artistic work was held by the Society at Bayswater, on March 10th, and the Committee hope to establish a permanent depôt of a similar kind. As a result of the Society's previous work, it may be mentioned that an independent and hitherto successful effort has been made in law-copying by the establishment of two offices in the City-at 24, Coleman Street, and 141, Fenchurch Street. After the meeting of the Social Science Association last year, a branch society was formed at Dublin, which has extended its operations rapidly and successfully. Communication is kept up with the branch committees at Dublin, Newcastle, Leicester, and Nottingham, and the Edinburgh and Aberdeen societies,* and occasional help and information are interchanged; and in several towns at which the Society has established agencies, considerable interest is felt in the better industrial training of women. In the working of the Society the Committee have increasing experience of the defective education of women. The want of early training and discipline is conspicuous in the majority of those who apply for work. While the applicants show great ignorance both of the necessity of such training and of the importance of accuracy and thoroughness generally, the demand is almost exclusively for women fitted for posts of responsibility, and for skilled labourers in every department of handicraft and art. The Committee may add, that the need of some trustworthy test of women's abilities, is very frequently pressed upon their notice. The Committee consider that the general moral influence of the Society is extending, but they look for farther assistance both from their present friends, and from many who are probably not aware how much it lies in their power to diminish the difficulties which women encounter in trying to obtain suitable work. The answer most frequently given by tradesmen (such as linendrapers and hairdressers) who might fitly employ women assistants, is that it rests chiefly in the hands of ladies themselves. If ladies would show that they are really interested in the matter, tradesmen would interest themselves also. The Committee are convinced that a fuller recognition is needed * Secretaries: Miss Blyth, 30 Hanover Street, Edinburgh; Miss Armstrong, 15, Simpson Street, Newcastle-on-Tyne; Mrs. Edward Paget, Friar's Lane, Leicester; Miss Hine, Regent Street, Nottingham; Mrs. Spottiswood, Rubislaw Terrace, Aberdeen; Miss Corlett, 101, Summerhill, Dublin. of the facts which come within the daily experience of most persons, and which include not only the suffering which falls on a woman (and often on those dependent on her) by her being debarred from remunerative work fitted to her powers, but also the deterioration and the waste of energies, consequent on the indolence which has grown upon the women of the non-working class. Every one can do something towards diminishing the prejudices which foster these evils; and so help in preventing the distress for which it is so difficult to find a remedy.* *Lord Brougham, in his opening Address to the Social Science Congress last month, having stated that the Society had been originally founded by Miss Parkes and Miss Faithfull, the error has since been corrected; Miss Boucherett (as is well known to most of our readers) being the founder of the Society. LXXIV.-CHARITY. GENTLE her step, and calm her mien, as one of heavenly birth, She stood beside St. Peter, when the sick around him lay, When pestilence stalks through the earth, and friends and all are fled, |