In common with a younger sister and brother, I shared her care in my
early instruction, and found over one of the truest counsellors in a
sister who scorned not the youngest mind nor the simplest intellectual
wants in her love for communion, through converse or the silent page,
with the minds of the greatest and most gifted.

During a lingering illness, in childhood, well do I remember her as
the angel of the sick-chamber, reading much to me from books useful
and appropriate, and telling many a narrative not only fitted to wile
away the pain of disease and the weariness of long confinement, but to
elevate the mind and heart, and to direct them to all things noble and
holy; over ready to watch while I slept, and to perform every gentle
and kindly office. But her care of the sick--that she did not neglect,
but was eminent in that sphere of womanly duty, even when no tie of
kindred claimed this of her, Mr. Cass's letter abundantly shows; and
also that this gentleness was united to a heroism which most call
manly, but which, I believe, may as justly be called truly womanly.
Mr. Cass's letter is inserted because it arrived too late to find a
place in her "Memoirs," and yet more because it bears much on Margaret
Ossoli's characteristics as a woman.

A few also of her private letters and papers, not bearing, save,
indirectly, on the subject of this volume, are yet inserted in it, as
further illustrative of her thought, feeling and action, in life's
various relations. It is believed that nothing which exhibits a true
woman, especially in her relations to others as friend, sister,
daughter, wife, or mother, can fail to interest and be of value to her
sex, indeed to all who are interested in human welfare and
advancement, since these latter so much depend on the fidelity of