tions on seeing the statue, and learning the history of the poor infatuated Maid of Orleans, partook of the sombre character described above. Certain it is, that when she found herself immured in a convent in Rouen, as a pupil, and her parents were bidding her adieu, her pleadings were most eloquent that the arrangement might be reversed. But the fiat was passed, and there was no revocation. The stipulated term rolled heavily away in this seclusion, and she was removed to Paris, where she enjoyed every advantage that wealth could furnish for the successful cultivation of her native powers. Her industry and application were unparalleled among her associates. The facility with which she acquired knowledge, and performed her various exercises, was considered by them, a kind of magic; and so it was. The magic of a system, well arranged and uniformly and zealously pursued. Anica rose at four in the morning, even in the depth of winter, and having a place for every thing, and stated hours appropriated to the several divisions of study, "no moment" was expended "but in purchase of its worth." She was never satisfied with superficial attainments, and her unwearied application yielded a rich reward.

Blest with a fine constitution, and having a taste for natural history, her health was no doubt pre

served in vigour by frequent exercise in the Paris Gardens.

"The spleen is seldom felt where Flora reigns." Frivolous amusements, merely calculated to dissipate the mind, presented few attractions to Anica, and her plan was so adjusted that even her hours for recreation contributed to mental improvement.

At that period the Garden of Plants was considered the most complete in Europe. Here was the cedar of Lebanon towering in majesty "with fair branches and a shadowy shroud," which had been brought in a flower-pot and planted by Jussieu in 1736; and here was the humble creeper, dragging "her feeble stem along the ground." In this magnificent garden, the counterfeit of nature's wilderness, she became a botanist. And with the phraseology of Jussieu, on the principles of whose system the garden was established, she was perfectly familiar. She loved the "green-house too, where bloomed exotic beauty." Here she would linger with her microscope, and while examining the minuter touches of nature's pencil, she could not but observe the tiny inmates of those splendid floral palaces.

"Transparent forms too fine for mortal sight,
Their fluid bodies half dissolved in light;

Loose to the wind their airy garments flew,
Their glittering texture of the filmy dew,
Dipped in the richest tincture of the skies,
Where light disports in ever mingling dyes;

While every beam new transient colours brings,
Colours that change, whene'er they wave their wings!"

This led to the study of Entomology, which she pursued with her accustomed avidity. Ornithology next engaged her attention. And here, birds of all descriptions-graceful or gorgeous-diminutive or stately, were to be found among the groves and

terraces.

An extensive menagerie occupied a part of the garden, so admirably adapted to its object, that animals from various climes were made to feel themselves at home by artificial arrangements, which gave full scope to her zoological inquiries. Here she would see the elephant with ponderous step leaving his lofty apartment, through folding doors opening into a wild area, containing smooth banks and a mimic lake, in which he daily plunged after basking in the morning sunshine until his skin became dry and heated. The mild and timid giraffe, presented by the Pacha of Egypt, browsing upon the tender twigs and herbage, as much at ease as in its own dense forest. The camel here had found a cool retreat, no longer cheated by the illu

sive mirage, nor threatened by the "fierce Simoon" or deadly chamseen. The milk-white goat of Cachmire with its long silky covering the deer and antelope climbing the massy rocks or resting under the lime-trees, and each the monarch of some cot or castle; while the carnivorous animals were confined by iron gratings. Here, attended by her indulgent father, she would occupy her leisure hours; or in the museum examining the richness and variety of its specimens. Such were Anica's recreations during her six years pupilage in Paris. And from these she would return invigorated to her ordinary studies, which she prosecuted with intense assiduity. She excelled in music, and her drawings displayed the finest taste and execution.

In Anica, great personal attractions were combined with an exquisite delicacy of feeling and deportment. She never evinced a consciousness of superiority, but by weeping over those whose dulness became conspicuous when unavoidably contrasted with her acquirements. At an examination, where various premiums were successively awarded to Anica by impartial judges, while the hearts of her parents were glowing with rapture, the big tears trembled in her dark blue eyes; and she became so agitated that permission was given her to retire. Her mother, alarmed at her protracted absence, went

in search of her, and might have sought in vain, but for the sobs which could not be suppressed. When she affectionately insisted on knowing the cause of this uneasiness, Anica replied that she could not refrain from weeping when they were giving her so many premiums, while some of her class-mates, who ardently desired them, must be so sadly disappointed. Her gentleness and suavity conciliated the affections, and she was thus happily exempted from those envyings which her elevated standing might otherwise have occasioned. And thus she pursued her onward course, delighting and astonishing friends and preceptors with her rapid proficiency, until her education was nearly completed; and her parents, actuated by one soulabsorbing interest, were making preparations for spending a few months in Italy, intending sub'sequently, to make the grand tour of Europe, that the highest possible finish might be given to this idol of their affections, desirous that others should worship at the same shrine with themselves. They never seemed to think that she was mortal. With

them, this "life had sown her joys so thick," the

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thought of death" could find no room to enter. Even in her infancy, while they caressed the babe and gazed upon her beauty, no grateful thoughts ascended to Heaven for the precious gift. They