thies, and prejudices, having assumed a more rational and softened shape, do not present so many angles for the rough attrition of the world. Likewise, with the eye of faith we have come to view life in its entireness, instead of puzzling over its disjointed parts, which were never meant to be made wholly clear to mortal eye. And that calm twilight, which, by nature's kindly law, so soon begins to creep over the past, throws over all things a softened coloring, which transcends and forbids regret.

Another reason why woman has greater capacity for usefulness in middle life than in any previous portion of her existence, is her greater independence. She will have learned to understand herself, mentally and bodily; to be mistress over herself. Nor is this a small advantage; for it often takes years to comprehend, and to act upon when comprehended, the physical peculiarities of one's own constitution. Much valetudinarianism among women arises from ignorance or neglect of the commonest sanitary laws; and from indifference to that grand preservative of a healthy body, a well-controlled and healthy mind. Both of these are more attainable in middle age than in youth; and therefore the sort of happiness they bring, a solid, useful, available happiness, is more in her power then than at any earlier period. And why? Because she has ceased to think principally of herself and her own pleasures; because happiness has itself become to her an accidental thing, which the good God may give or withhold, as He sees most fit for her, and most adapted to the work for which he means to use her in her generation. This conviction of being at once an active and a passive agent is surely consecration

enough to form the peace, nay, the happiness, of any good woman's life; enough, be it ever so solitary, to sustain it until the end. In what manner such a conviction should be carried out, no one individual can venture to advise. In this age, woman's work is almost unlimited, when the woman herself so chooses. She alone can be a law unto herself; deciding and acting according to the circumstances in which her lot is placed. And have we not many who do so act? There are women of property, whose names are a proverb for generous and wide charities; whose riches, carefully guided, flow into innumerable channels, freshening the whole land. There are

women of rank and influence, who use both, or lay aside both, in the simplest humility, for labors of love, which level all classes, or rather raise them all, to one common sphere of womanhood.

Many others, of whom the world knows nothing, have taken the wisest course that any unmarried woman can take; they have made themselves a home and a position; some as the Ladies Bountiful of a country neighborhood; some, as elder sisters, on whom has fallen the bringing up of whole families, and to whom has been tacitly accorded the headship of the same, by the love and respect of more than one generation thereof. There are some who, as writers, painters, and professional women generally, make the most of whatever special gift is allotted to them; believing that, whether it be great or small, it is not theirs, either to lose or to waste, but that they must one day render up to the Master his own, with usury.

I will not deny that the approach of old age has its sad

aspect to a woman who has never married; and who, when her own generation dies out, no longer retains, or can expect to retain, any flesh-and-blood claim upon a single human being. When all the downward ties, which give to the decline of life a rightful comfort, and the interest in the new generation which brightens it with a perpetual hope, are to her either unknown, or indulged in chiefly on one side. Of course there are exceptions, where an aunt has been almost like a mother, and where a loving and lovable great-aunt is as important a personage as any grandmother. But, generally speaking, a single woman must make up her mind that the close of her days will be more or less solitary.

Yet there is a solitude which old age feels to be as natural and satisfying as that rest which seems such an irksomeness to youth, but which gradually grows into the best blessing of our lives; and there is another solitude, so full of peace and hope, that it is like Jacob's sleep in the wilderness, at the foot of the ladder of angels.

The extreme loneliness, which afar off appears sad, may prove to be but as the quiet, dreamy hour "between the lights," when the day's work is done, and we lean back, closing our eyes, to think it all over before we finally go to rest, or to look forward, with faith and hope, unto the coming Morning.

A life in which the best has been made of all the materials granted to it, and through which the hand of the Great Designer can be plainly traced, whether its web be dark or bright, whether its pattern be clear or clouded, is not a life to be pitied; for it is a completed life. It has fulfilled its appointed course, and returns to the Giver of all breath, pure as he gave it. Nor will he forget it when he counteth up his jewels.

-MISS MULOCH.

CHAPTER XLV.

Thoughts About Women by. Notable. Writers.

ABILITY.

EN need not try where women fail.-Euripides.

There are many more clever women in the world than men think for; our habit is to despise

them; we believe they do not think because they do not contradict us, and they are weak because they do not struggle and rise up against us. A man only begins to know women as he grows old; and, for my part, my opinion of their cleverness rises every day.-Thackeray.

When I see the elaborate study and ingenuity displayed by women in the pursuit of trifles, I feel no doubt of their capacity for the most herculean undertakings.-Julia Ward Howe.

Women have more of common sense, though less of acquired capacity, than men.-Hazlett.

This I set down as a positive truth: a woman with fair opportunities, and without an absolute hump, may marry whom she likes. Only let us be thankful that

the darlings are like the beasts of the field, and don't know their own power.-Thackeray.

AFFECTIONS.

A wise woman confides in few persons, a cunning one in none.-Ninon de Lenclos.

A supreme love, a motive that gives a sublime rhythm to a woman's life, and exalts habit into partnership with the soul's highest needs, is not to be had where and how she wills; to know that high initiation, she must often tread where it is hard to tread, and to feel the chill air, and watch through darkness.-George Eliot.

A woman's whole life is a history of affections.Washington Irving.

Beneath the odorous shade of the boundless forests of Chili, the native youth repeats the story of love as sincerely as it, was ever chanted in the valley of Vaucluse. The affections of family are not the growth of civilization.-Bancroft.

No padlock, bolts, or bars can secure a maiden so well as her own reserve.-Cervantes.

Our own capacity for loving, be it pure and good, will make us beloved.-Mrs. L. H. Sigourney.

Men are misers, and women prodigal in affection.Lamartine.

Is not the life of woman all bound up in her affections? What hath she to do in this bleak world alone? It may be well for man, on his triumphal course, to move uncumbered by soft bonds; but we were born for love and grief.-Mrs. Hemans.

Affection is woman's native atmosphere.-Lamartine.