CHAPTER XXIV "In age, in infancy, from other's aid THE HE neglected daughter of Lady Juliana Douglas, experienced all the advantages naturally to be expected from her change of situation. Her watchful aunt superintended the years of her infancy, and all that a tender and judicious mother could do all that most mothers think they do she performed. Mrs. Douglas, though not a woman either of words or systems, possessed a reflecting mind, and a heart warm with benevolence towards everything that had a being; and all the best feelings of her nature were excited by the little outcast, thus abandoned by her unnatural parent. As she pressed the unconscious babe to her bosom, she thought how blest she should have been, had a child of her own thus filled her arms; but the reflection called forth no selfish murmurs from her chastened spirit. While the tear of soft regret trembled in her eye, that eye was yet raised in gratitude to heaven for having called forth those delightful affections which might otherwise have slumbered in her heart. Mrs. Douglas had read much, and reflected more; and many faultless theories of education floated through her mind. But her good sense soon discovered how unavailing all theories were, whose foundations rested upon the inferred wisdom of the teachers; and how intricate and unwieldy must be the machinery for the human mind, where the human hand alone is to guide and uphold it. To engraft into her infant soul the purest principles of religion, was therefore the chief aim of Mary's preceptress. The fear of God was the only restraint imposed upon her dawning intellect; and from the Bible alone was she taught the duties of morality-not in the form of a dry code of laws, to be read with a solemn face on Sundays, or learned with weeping eyes as a week-day taskbut adapted to her youthful capacity by judicious illustration, and familiarized to her taste by hearing its stories and precepts from the lips she best loved. Mrs. Douglas was the friend and confidante of her pupil to her all her hopes and fears, wishes and dreads, were confided; and the first effort of her reason was the discovery, that to please her aunt, she must study to please her Maker. "L'inutilité de le vie des femmes, est la premier source de leurs désordres." Mrs. Douglas was fully convinced of the truth of this observation, and that the mere selfish cares and vulgar bustle of life are not sufficient to satisfy the immortal soul, however they may serve to engross it. A portion of Mary's time was therefore devoted to the daily practice of the great duties of life: in administering, in some shape or other, to the wants and misfortunes of her fellow creatures, without requiring from them that their virtue should have been immaculate, or expecting that their gratitude should be everlasting. "It is better," thought Mrs. Douglas, "that we should sometimes be deceived by others, than that we should learn to deceive ourselves; and the charity and good will that is suffered to lie dormant, or feed itself on speculative acts of beneficence, for want of proper objects to call it into use, will soon become the corroding rust that will destroy the best feelings of our nature." But, although Mary strenuously applied herself to the uses of life, its embellishments were by no means neglected. She was happily endowed by nature; and, under the judicious management of her aunt, made rapid though unostentatious progress in the improvement of the talents committed to her care. Without having been blessed with the advantages of a dancing-master, her step was light, and her motions free and graceful; and if her aunt had not been able to impart to her the favourite graces of the most fashionable singer of the day, neither had she thwarted the efforts of her own natural taste, in forming a style full of simplicity and feeling. In the modern languages she was perfectly skilled; and if her drawings wanted the enlivening touches of the master to give them effect; as an atonement, they displayed a perfect knowledge of the rules of perspective and the study of the bust. All this was however mere leather and prunella to the ladies of Glenfern; and many were the cogitations and consultations that took place on the subject of Mary's mismanagement. According to their ideas, there could be but one good system of education; and that was the one that had been pursued with them, and through them transmitted to their nieces. To attend the parish church, and remember the text; to observe who was there, and who was not there; and to wind up the evening with a sermon stuttered and stammered through by one of the girls, (the worst reader always piously selected, for the purpose of improving their reading,) and particularly addressed to the Laird, openly and avowedly snoring in his arm-chair, though at every pause starting up with a peevish "Weel?"—this was the sum total of their religious duties. Their moral virtues were much upon the same scale; to knit stockings, scold servants, cement china, trim bonnets, lecture the poor, and look up to Lady Maclaughlan, comprised nearly their whole code. But these were the virtues of ripened years and enlarged understandings; what their pupils might hope to arrive at, but could not presume to meddle with. Their merits consisted in being compelled to sew certain large portions of white work; learning to read and write in the worst manner; occasionally wearing a collar,1 and learning the notes on the spinnet. These acquirements, accompanied with a great deal of lecturing and fault-finding, sufficed for the first fifteen years; when the two next, passed at a provincial boardingschool, were supposed to impart every graceful accomplishment to which women could attain. Mrs. Douglas' method of conveying instruction, it may easily be imagined, did not square with their ideas on that subject. They did nothing themselves without a bustle, and to do a thing quietly, was to them the same as not doing it at all-it could not be done, for nobody had ever heard of it. In short, like many other worthy people, their ears 1 [A sort of yoke worn to improve the figure, perhaps with the idea of producing the sloping shoulders in which our great-grandmothers delighted.] were their only organs of intelligence-they believed everything they were told; but, unless they were told, they believed nothing. They had never heard Mrs. Douglas expatiate on the importance of the trust reposed in her, or enlarge on the difficulties of female education; ergo, Mrs. Douglas could have no idea of the nature of the duties she had undertaken. Their visits to Lochmarlie only served to confirm the fact. Miss Jacky deponed, that during the month she was there, she never could discover when or how it was, that Mary got her lessons; luckily the child was quick, and had contrived, poor thing! to pick up things wonderfully, nobody knew how, for it was really astonishing to see how little pains were bestowed upon her; and the worst of it was, that she seemed to do just as she liked, for nobody ever heard her reproved, and everybody knew that young people never could have enough said to them. All this differed widely from the éclat of their system, and could not fail of causing great disquiet to the sisters. "I declare I'm quite confounded at all this! said Miss Grizzy, at the conclusion of Miss Jacky's communication. "It really appears as if Mary, poor thing! was getting no education at all; and yet she can do things, too. I can't understand it; and it's very odd in Mrs. Douglas to allow her to be so much neglected, for certainly Mary's constantly with herself; which, to be sure, shews that she is very much spoilt; for although our girls are as fond of us as, I am sure, any creatures can be, yet, at the same time, they are always very gladwhich is quite natural—to run away from us. "I think it is high time Mary had done someVOL. I.-13 |