path of duty. Their greatest triumphs, because private and
domestic, are rarely recorded; and it is not often, even in the
biographies of distinguished men, that we hear of the share which
their mothers have had in the formation of their character, and in
giving them a bias towards goodness. Yet are they not on that
account without their reward. The influence they have exercised,
though unrecorded, lives after them, and goes on propagating
itself in consequences for ever.

We do not often hear of great women, as we do of great men. It is
of good women that we mostly hear; and it is probable that by
determining the character of men and women for good, they are
doing even greater work than if they were to paint great pictures,
write great books, or compose great operas. "It is quite true,"
said Joseph de Maistre, "that women have produced no CHEFS-
DOEUVRE. They have written no 'Iliad,' nor 'Jerusalem Delivered,'
nor 'Hamlet,' nor 'Phaedre,' nor 'Paradise Lost,' nor 'Tartuffe;'
they have designed no Church of St. Peter's, composed no
'Messiah,' carved no 'Apollo Belvidere,' painted no 'Last
Judgment;' they have invented neither algebra, nor telescopes, nor
steam-engines; but they have done something far greater and better
than all this, for it is at their knees that upright and virtuous
men and women have been trained--the most excellent productions
in the world."

De Maistre, in his letters and writings, speaks of his own mother
with immense love and reverence. Her noble character made all
other women venerable in his eyes. He described her as his
"sublime mother"--"an angel to whom God had lent a body for a
brief season." To her he attributed the bent of his character, and