ad always a keen
ear open to whatever new facts astronomy, chemistry, of the
theories of light and heat had to furnish. Any knowledge,
all knowledge was welcome. Her stores increased day by day.
She was absolutely without pedantry. Nobody ever heard of
her learning until a necessity came for its use, and then
nothing could be more simple than her solution of the problem
proposed to her. The most intellectual gladly conversed with
one whose knowledge, however rich and varied, was always with
her only the means of new acquisition. Meantime her mind
was purely receptive. She had no ambition to propound a theory,
or to write her own name on any book, or plant, or opinion.
Her delight in books was not tainted by any wish to shine,
or any appetite for praise or influence. She seldom and unwillingly
used a pen, and only for necessity or affection.

"But this wide and successful study was, during all the hours
of middle life, only the work of hours stolen from sleep,
or was combined with some household task which occupied the
hands and left the eyes free. She was faithful to all the
duties of wife and mother in a well-ordered and eminently
hospitable household, wherein she was dearly loved, and where

'her heart
Life's lowliest duties on itself did lay.'

"She was not only the most amiable, but the tenderest of
women, wholly sincere, thoughtful for others, and, though
careless of appearances, submitting with docility to the
better arrangements with which her children or friends insisted
on supplementing her own negligence of dress; for her own
part indulging her children in the greatest freedom, assured
that their own reflection, as it opened, would supply all
needed checks. She was absolutely without appetite for luxury,
or display, or praise, or influence, with entire indifference
to trifles. Not long before her marriage, one of her intimate
friends in the city, whose family were removing, proposed
to her to go with her to the new house, and, taking some articles
in her own hand, by way of trial artfully put into her hand
a broom, whilst she kept her in free conversation on some
speculative points, and this she faithfully carried across
Boston Common, from Summer Street to Hancock Street, without
hesitation or remark.

"Though entirely domestic in her habit and inclination, she
was everywhere a welcome visitor, and a favorite of society,
when she rarely entered it. The elegance of her tastes recommende