Why seek we farther then? Behold around
How all thou seest does with God abound;
Jove is alike in all, and always to be found.
Let those weak minds, who live in doubt and
fear,

To juggling priests for oracles repair;
One certain hour of death to each decreed,
My fix'd, my certain soul from death has freed.
The coward and the brave are doom'd to fall,
And when Jove told this truth, he told us all.
So spoke the hero; and to keep his word,
Nor Ammon, nor his oracle explor'd;
But left the crowd at freedom to believe,
And take such answers as the priest should
give."

LOUISE DE QUEROUALLE, DUCH

ESS OF PORTSMOUTH.

Her birth, her beauty, crowds and courts confess,

Chaste matrons praise her, and grave bishops bless;

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is impossible to study history without admitting that the political influence of women has been great in all ages; it has been modified by the difference of manner and the degree of intelligence,-it has been more or less ostensible, more or less mischievous, but at all times it has been great, and it increases with the progress of civilization and the diffusion of knowledge. It is not in these days that we are to listen to common-places out of the Spectator and the Ecole des Femmes.. Let it be granted, that women are formed for private life alone;" but in that privacy, in our nurseries and boudoirs, are inculcated and directed the principles and opinions of those men who are to legislate for the happiness and welfare of nations. This species of indirect influence increases with the spread of civilization and intelligence, it cannot be denied-it cannot be suppressed-is not the next alternative to render it beneficial to society? If a woman could once be taught to feel, to appreciate the grand stake she has in the political institutions of her country, and to understand the interests of humanity at large, she would no longer mix up with these considerations the petty passions, errors, and prejudices, and personal feelings, which have rendered at all times the political interference and influence of the sex a fertile source of evil, and a neverfailing topic of reproach and regret; for evil has been almost constantly the result. The gallantry of men and the vanity of women may here suggest instances of the contrary; but for one Volumnia how many Cleopatras? for one Agnes Sorel how many Pompadours and Portsmouths? One thing, however, is certain, that, thanks to the progressive diffusion of

to behold again in civilized Europe the common decencies of life braved by the insolent triumph of a "maitresse en titre;' "nor sin in state, majestically drunk," trampling over the destinies of great nations and the interests of millions of men. A Maintenon will never more half depopulate France, nor a Portsmouth bargain with a foreign despot for the sale of English liberty,

Louise Renée de Penencovet de Quéroualle, of a noble but impoverished family in Brittany, was appointed maid of honor to the Duchess of Orleans in the