tenderness and masculine strength, which administers
to woman that reflective and glorifying interpretation, and that
supporting guidance, whereof she continually stands in such need.
What woman would not be proud and grateful at receiving such a
tribute as that which Waller paid to the Countess of Carlisle, on
seeing her dressed in mourning?

When from black clouds no part of sky is clear,
But just so much as lets the sun appear,
Heaven then would seem thy image, and reflect
Those sable vestments and that bright aspect.
A spark of virtue by the deepest shade
Of sad adversity is fairer made:
No less advantage doth thy beauty get,
A Venus rising from a sea of jet!

What woman capable of appreciating the genius of Racine could read
the works in which his choice thoughts and effusive sentiments are
enshrined, purified and confirmed echoes of the finest sighs ever
breathed by the heart, and not be drawn to him honoring esteem and
love? It was this mastery of the interior life, this impassioned
voicing of its subtilest secrets, that made Rousseau so irresistibly
attractive to women. To the many who befriended him, or paid precious
tributes to him in his life, the name of Madame de Verdelin has
recently been added, by the publication of her correspondence. Sainte
Beuve has prefixed her recovered portrait in an essay marked by his
best touches. After quoting her final letter, he says, "From that
day, Madame de Verdelin wholly disappears. She is known only through
Rousseau. A ray of his glory fell on her; that ray--withdrawn, she
repasses into the shade, and every trace is lost." The gifted critic
says he feels a deep gratification in thus recalling the image of
this generous woman. "She is a conquest for us: we pay the debt of
Rousseau to her." He concludes what he has written with reference to
these friendships of mind to mind, these intimacies of intelligence
and feeling, these affections of women and authors, more tender than
those of men, and yet quite distinct from love, by saying, with
instructive emphasis, "Evidently, social morality has taken a step
forward: a new chapter, unknown to the ancients, too much forgotten
by the moderns, is henceforth to be added in all treatises of
friendship."

Perhaps no author has ever written more that must speak with
irresistible power to the inmost hearts of all women who have souls
sensitive enough, complex, cultivated, and forcible enough, for an
adequate reaction on the ric