, neatness, and
industry, which ornaments their riper years.

But to our _influence_, our silent, unconscious influence alone, can
such advantages be ascribed; for neither example nor precept are in our
power; our race cannot boast of intellectual endowments; and though
there are few qualities, moral or mental, that have not in their turn
been imputed to us by partial friends, truth obliges me to confess that
they exist rather in the minds of our admirers than in our own persons.

We are a race of mere dependents; some might even call us slaves. Unable
to change our place, or move hand or foot at our own pleasure, and
forced to submit to every caprice of our possessors, we cannot be said
to have even a will of our own. But every condition has its share of
good and evil, and I have often considered my helplessness and
dependence as mere trifles compared with the troubles to which poor
sensitive human beings are subject.

Pain, sickness, or fatigue I never knew. While a fidgetty child cannot
keep still for two minutes at a time, I sit contentedly for days
together in the same attitude; and I have before now seen one of those
irritable young mortals cry at a scratch, while I was hearing needles
drawn in and out of every part of my body, or sitting with a pin run
straight through my heart, calmly congratulating myself on being free
from the inconveniences of flesh and blood.

Of negative merits I possess a good share. I am never out of humor,
never impatient, never mischievous, noisy, nor intrusive; and though I
and my fellows cannot lay claim to brilliant powers either in word or
deed, we may boast of the same qualifications as our wittiest king, for
certainly none of us ever 'said a foolish thing,' if she 'never did a
wise one.'

Personal beauty I might almost, without vanity, call the 'badge of all
our tribe.' Our very name is seldom mentioned without the epithet
_pretty_; and in my own individual case I may say that I have always
been considered pleasing and elegant, though others have surpassed me in
size and grandeur.

But our most striking characteristic is our power of inspiring strong
attachment. The love bestowed on us by our possessors is proof against
time, familiarity, and misfortune:

'Age cannot wither' us, 'nor custom stale'
Our 'infinite variety.'

With no trace of our original beauty left,--dress in tatters, complexion
defaced, features undistinguishable, our very limbs mutilated, the mer