It is of good women that we mostly hear; and it is probable that by determining the character of men and women for good, they are doing even greater work than if they were to paint great pictures, write great books, or compose great operas.

"It is quite true," said Joseph de Maistre, "that women have produced no CHEFS-DOEUVRE.

They have written no 'Iliad,' nor 'Jerusalem Delivered,' nor 'Hamlet,' nor 'Phaedre,' nor 'Paradise Lost,' nor 'Tartuffe;' they have designed no Church of St.Peter's, composed no 'Messiah,' carved no 'Apollo Belvidere,' painted no 'Last Judgment;' they have invented neither algebra, nor telescopes, nor steam-engines; but they have done something far greater and better than all this, for it is at their knees that upright and virtuous men and women have been trained--the most excellent productions in the world." De Maistre, in his letters and writings, speaks of his own mother with immense love and reverence.

Her noble character made all other women venerable in his eyes.

He described her as his "sublime mother"-- "an angel to whom God had lent a body for a brief season." To her he attributed the bent of his character, and all his bias towards good; and when he had grown to mature years, while acting as ambassador at the Court of St.Petersburg, he referred to her noble example and precepts as the ruling influence in his life.
One of the most charming features in the character of Samuel Johnson, notwithstanding his rough and shaggy exterior, was the tenderness with which he invariably spoke of his mother [115]--a woman of strong understanding, who firmly implanted in his mind, as he himself acknowledges, his first impressions of religion.