her education; bringing over some
French actors to Vienna to instruct her in the graces of elocution, and
subsequently establishing as her chief tutor a French ecclesiastic, the
Abbe de Vermond, a man of extensive learning, of excellent judgment, and
of most conscientious integrity. The appointment would have been in every
respect a most fortunate one, had it not been suggested by Lomenie de
Brienne, Archbishop of Toulouse, who thus laid the abbe under an
obligation which was requited, to the great injury of France, nearly
twenty years afterward, when M. de Vermond, who still remained about the
person of his royal mistress, had an opportunity of exerting his influence
to make the archbishop prime minister.

Not that her studies were confined to French. Metastasio taught her
Italian; Gluck, whose recently published opera of "Orfeo" had, established
for him a reputation as one of the greatest musicians of the age, gave her
lessons on the harpsichord. But we fear it can not be said that she
obtained any high degree of excellence in these or in any other
accomplishments. She was not inclined to study; and, with the exception of
the abbe, her masters and mistresses were too courtly to be peremptory
with an archduchess. Their favorable reports to the Empress-queen were
indeed neutralized by the frankness with which their pupil herself
confessed her idleness and failure to improve. But Maria Teresa was too
much absorbed in politics to give much heed to the confession, or to
insist on greater diligence; though at a later day Marie Antoinette
herself repented of her neglect, and did her best to repair it, taking
lessons in more than one accomplishment with great perseverance during the
first years of her residence at Versailles, because, as she expressed
herself, the dauphiness was bound to take care of the character of the
archduchess.

There are, however, lessons of greater importance to a child than any
which are given by even the most accomplished masters--those which flow
from the example of a virtuous and sensible mother; and those the young
archduchess showed a greater aptitude for learning. Maria Teresa had set
an example not only to her own family, but to all sovereigns, among whom
principles and practices such as hers had hitherto been little recognized,
of regarding an attention to the personal welfare of all her subjects,
even of those of the lowest class, as among the most imperative of her
duties. She had been ac