her joys and sorrows, in the freedom and unreserve of domestic life, I may truthfully say I never heard an unkind expression from her lips concerning any one of them; and even when hope deferred was lost in the conviction that a reconciliation was no longer to be looked for, any intelligence which might reach her respecting them, through the public papers, or other indifferent channels, awakened the keenest interest: she loved unto the end.

CHAP. VII.

1811-1819.

"C'étoit une de ses maximes que la grande fidélité envers Dieu se voyoit dans les petites choses."-ST. FRANCIS DE SALES.

"I cannot call riches better than the baggage of virtue, for as the baggage is to an army, so is riches to virtue; it cannot be separated nor left behind, but it hindereth the march."-BACON.

SOON after Mrs. SchimmelPenninck's marriage, one who knew her well, asks, "How does your Greek go on? how does your housekeeping go on? I am glad that Mary Anne finds Mrs. Madden something more than a housekeeper. Does Mary Anne direct Mrs. Madden, or Mrs. Madden instruct Mary Anne? I think the mistress should go to school and take a lesson of the maid every day!" And, indeed, when her previous education, her pursuits and objects of interest are considered, the inquiry is a very natural one; but, true to her early resolution, "Whatever I undertake I will perform in the best possible manner," when it became her duty, she turned her thoughts and attention to the best way of regulating and directing her household.

There are few things in her character more admirable, or more touching to those who knew her intimately, than

her earnest desire "to do well" in things most opposed to her tastes and habits of mind. Amongst her journals and papers I find memoranda respecting the minutest detail of domestic economy. It must be acknowledged that her method of attaining her wishes in these things was not always that commonly pursued; but did this matter when the end was attained? A lady eminently capable of judging, when speaking of this subject, says of her visits to Mrs. Schimmel Penninck, "They were deeply interesting to us, and we rarely if ever stayed anywhere where the domestic arrangements appeared more beautifully complete; this I the more dwell upon, because the on dit was, that our dear friend was too literary to know anything of domestic management."" Neither can this excite astonishment, when it is remembered that in her father's house the machinery of life was carried out by numerous servants, and that it was part of her gifted mother's principle to keep the minds of her children altogether devoted to intellectual culture. Till Mary Anne married, she had probably given more time and felt more interest in the study of the household life of the Greeks and Romans than in that which was passing around her.

How often have I heard her regret her deficiency in these things, and wish that she had been fully instructed concerning them. How often have I heard her wish that she had been early taught to work with her needle; perhaps it was this very ignorance which led her so strongly to inculcate on her young friends the value of these feminine attainments; and it was touching to witness her patient efforts in later life to acquire them.

A

There was nothing she thought too little to come within the sphere of duty, nothing too minute for a child of God to mark (as she expressed it) with the stamp royal of the Divine character; but these things were done by her with a simplicity, and a bright cheerfulness, which those who knew her cannot fail of recollecting, and which no words could adequately convey to those who knew her not.

And this attention to domestic duties in the early period of Mrs. Schimmel Penninck's married life was well timed, for a trial was approaching of a nature altogether new to her experience.

Mr. Schimmel Penninck was concerned with the shipping interests of Bristol, and, owing to circumstances connected with them, he was for some years oppressed by pecuniary embarrassments. From a kind but mistaken desire to save his wife present pain, he carefully concealed them from her knowledge, till on one occasion, when they were expecting a large party to dinner, the truth could no longer be hid, and he confessed to her that he was in pressing difficulties. Mrs. Schimmel Penninck that evening received and entertained her company as if nothing unusual had occurred; but when they were gone, she lost not a moment in inquiring into the exact circumstances of the case, and sat up most of the night with her husband, making calculations how those difficulties could best be met.

Little as the subject of this Memoir knew of worldly matters, her unworldliness and indifference to the show and appearance which is valued by so many, together with her reverence for the great principle of "owing no man anything," were of immense use to her husband. Papers are

now before me which testify to the wise and excellent part she took in this season of pecuniary difficulty, which, but for her energy and admirable sense, would have been irremediable. She herself says, "I earnestly wish my husband to give up all thoughts of a vain struggle to go on here, but manfully to meet our difficulties, and enter on a new course of life which may extricate us; that if it should please the Divine hand hereafter to visit us with prosperity, we may have reaped the fruit of righteousness intended by this season of adversity." She speaks, too, of her cheerful willingness to live in the humblest way, and to exercise any degree of self-denial, so that they might keep out of debt and difficulty. Nor were these mere words, as the writer of these lines can testify; for years after, when her income by her wisdom and economy was increased to a comfortable, though moderate, sufficiency, she has often been known to wait months before she bought a print or a book upon which she had set her heart, because she thought she could not well afford it! And it was delightful to see united with this self-denial and thoughtfulness in the expenditure of money, how freely and nobly she gave to those who needed it. Many a sorrowful heart has her bounty caused to sing for joy; many, who reduced, perhaps, from affluence, too proud to ask, and suffering in silence, have blessed the giver of the help which it was her delight anonymously to bestow.

It was whilst the sorrows we have detailed were pressing upon Mrs. Schimmel Penninck, that the writings of the Port Royalists were first made known to her. She one day unexpectedly received a parcel from Mrs. Hannah More,