Indiana horticultural society. 541 



line, or getting out of liei- spliere; but was she fitted to superintend the 

 education of even her small children, and could she inspire any one with 

 respect? She probably possessed the "shy graces" that are sometimes 

 spoken of as being lacking in the modern college-bred young woman. 

 There seems to be a certain charm that in the minds of some good people 

 is inseparable from delicate weakness and innocent ignorance. But the 

 only true and genuine "shy graces" are not confined to any sex or any 

 age. They are the fruit of that real gentleness of spirit and refinement 

 of feeling that are the basis of true modesty. They are the "angelic man- 

 ners and celestial charms" of which Petrarch writes that the very memory 

 saddens while it delights, because it makes all other possessions seem 

 trivial. The women Avhom we love and admire most have these graces; 

 and they are also the possession of our ideal men. They were among the 

 great qualities of Mr. Lincoln, and they sat easily on Tennyson, Browning, 

 and the sad Mazzire. There is no reason to suppose that the greater free- 

 dom given to woman is destined to mar her nature or deprive it of any 

 charm. "An instinct no more pervasive than this, a charm that goes no 

 deepei", can hardly be worth deserving." 



In the days of Rousseau, and even later, Dr. Fordyce's sermons used 

 to be presented to young ladies. He tells them that "men desire in every 

 woman soft features, and a flowing voice, a form not robust, and 

 demeanor delicate and gentle." Speaking to Avomen whose husbands 

 habitually neglect them, he continues: "Had you behaved to them 

 with more respectful observance, studying their humors, submitting to 

 their opinions, giving soft answers to hasty words, making it your daily 

 care to relieve their anxieties, to enliven the hour of dullness, and call up 

 ideas of felicity, your home might at this day have been the abode of 

 domestic bliss." 



This is very quaint, printed with the long ss; but a little of it goes a 

 great way. Miss Austin's young ladies read Dr. Fordyce's sermons, and 

 with their endless chatter about marriage and settlements, balls and din- 

 ners, are interesting because thoy enal)le us to see how enormous a stride 

 we have made since then. Charlotte Lucas' reflections on her engagement 

 to Mr. Collins are extremely edifying: "Mr. Collins, to be sure, was 

 neither sensible nor agreeable; his society was irksome. But still he 

 would be her husband. Without thinking highly either of men or of mat- 

 rimony, marriage liad always bt»en her object; it was the only honorable 

 provision for well-educated young women of small fortune, and however 

 uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest preservative from 

 want!" 



Dr. Gregory's Legacy to His Daughters was another book much 

 esteemed in the latter part of the nineteenth century. This wise parent 

 counseled his girls not to dance with spirit, lest the men who beheld them 

 niight suppose tliat they were not entirely dependent on their protection, 

 or else might suspect theii- modesty; and lio Mdded: "Be careful in dis- 



