90 MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. II. 



bud, so I'll let it blow and become a full-blown flower, if it will. 

 However, I contrived to say a great deal of apposite nonsense 

 concerning the said brown coat, and sundry other things, and 

 we laughed right merrily ; but the great happiness of the even- 

 ing to me was R's most beautiful music. I really never heard 

 any one sing with so much taste and expression, or seem so 

 thoroughly to enter into the spirit of the songs. There is some- 

 thing especially thrilling, and, to my ear, most beautiful, in the 

 full round tone in which she pronounces the ' again,' in the 

 concluding line of Mrs. Hemans' affecting duet, 'The Child's 

 First Grief/ which, sung by two sisters whose voices most sweetly 

 harmonize, affects me more than anything else I have heard 

 this long time. ' The Last Links are Broken/ has gotten hold 

 of my inmost soul, prompting me to give utterance to the beau- 

 tiful sounds and beautiful words which compose it, as yet in- 

 effectually, for though the whole is present to my inmost ear, I 

 cannot speak it with my tongue. . . . Although I do think 

 the forte of the female mind is moral greatness and purity, in 

 which, in spite of the silly, base, and groundless hints of liber- 

 tines, they very far excel the rougher sex, and for the possession 

 of which I venerate the sex in general, and many individuals 

 in particular, yet I meet with scarcely one lady in ten or fifty 

 who has sufficiently cultivated her natural intellectual powers. 

 Excuses and explanations may be given, which I most willingly 

 admit. Ladies moving in the highest and least embarrassed 

 circles have so many domestic duties for papa, mamma, old and 

 young brothers and sisters, that they never can steal time 

 enough to study. Some good ladies admit the intellectuality of 

 their own sweet selves, but waive apologies for its non-advance- 

 ment as absurd, because unnecessary ; while some of them, arid 

 these often the most amiable and clever, disbelieve the excuses, 

 because they deny the intellectual power. I know many young 

 ladies who honestly and modestly shrink from the study of a 

 science, which yet they confess to be inviting and interesting, 

 which I am sure they could completely master. Far be it from 

 me to imagine that there is not a cardinal difference between 

 the male and female mind ; equally distant from my thoughts 

 be that fantastic foolery, the modern ' march of intellect' system. 



