St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1894-09-13

II wonder if most famous women
were as ambitious and gave signs of fu-
ture greatness in their early youth as
famous men?' asked a thoughtful look
ing girl, dropping her book, 1.-The Lives
bf tie Great Musicians, " in which with
delight she had been reading of the boy
Mozart.
Most great women have been pre-
cocious,'' answered her aunt, whose
busy brain possessed the charming fac
ulty of storing up all manner of inter
Ssting information against rain of
questions from her clever niece. LET
us go back to that sweetest character in
English history, Lady Jane Grey, and
we will find she was only 13 years old
when that learned scholar and fine gen.
tleman, Roger Ascham, found her read
ing Plato's 'Ph8don' in the original
Greek while the rest of the family were
off ON hunting party. But it was not
with a knowledge of Greek little Lady
Jane was satisfied. She spoke French,
Latin and italian fiuently, writing them
also, and translated easily from Hebrew,
Chaldee and Arabic. When her father
took her to court, they found with as
constituent that this demure country
young Edward VI, then a clever boy
under the first tutors in England Yet
with all her knowledge of literature and
languages Lady Jane embroidered
charmingly, sang to several instruments
that she played very well, danced and
wrote easily and gracefully.
Felicia Hemans published her first
collection of poems when she was only
IA.
"Angelica Kaufman, the beautiful
woman and gifted artist, who painted
the portraits of royalties, when only 1
used her brush far better than her ia
ther, who was an artist by profession.
mime Roland never remembered
when she learned to read, for at 4 years
of age she was greedily perusing any
books that came to her hand. Dancing
and music she readily acquired but
geography and Latin were her favorite
studies. AS girl of she would eager
ly rise at o'clock in the morning to
get to her books, and so dearly did she
love reading she carried her volume of
'Plutarch's Lives to church when she
was II years old and secretly read it
during the long prayers.
''There is not a more touching story
of a child's quick mind starved of its
proper food than Caroline Herschel.
Her mother was a stupid woman, who
kept her daughter purposely SO busy
about household work she could neither
study nor practice on her violin she dear
" loved and in which her father wished
to instruct her 1t was with an aching
heart and fearful eyes Caroline piled
her needle, while her father and his
sons held their little family concerts in
which the girl lOnged to join. She beg
ged to be allowed to study French with
her brother, and dancing also, but this
her mother forbade, though her gentle,
clever father was anxious his Caroline
should have a good education. 1t was
not until later in life, when her beloved
brother William, the great astronomer,
sent for her to join him in England,
she had any opportunity to exercise her
fine mind.
MARY Somerville says that as lit
tie girl she had a very bad memory, and
at 10 years of age was sent to a board
ing school, where the chief lesson for
each day was page Of JOhnsOn's Die
tiOnary committed to memory. She
never excelled at school, and yet at home
no one synpathized little later with
her desire to study Latin except an un-
Gle, who gave her some valuable in
structiOn. She was very much interested
III two celestial globes the village
schOOlmaster taught her to use, and yet, |
o1 the whole, she was rather in awe of /
the big consultations, whose brightness /
reminded her of lightning, of which she /
was desperately afraid. At length she |
persuaded her brothers. tutor to buy her ,
an algebra aud Euclid, which she /
stndied at night until her mother, in !
horror at the idea Of a girl wasting
time on studies meant for boys, deprived |
her of a candle to read by, and her IA
Their feared she might go crazy. 1t was |
long after that she really found the cour-
age and sympathy to take up her great |
studies in earnest
1T was as a pianist George Eliot was
noted at her school, and with the most |
amazing ease she acquired languages, !
yet as very little girl she showed no
great promise, much preferring romp
with her brother to her books.
Fannie Burney, who is also known /
as Nine. d'Arblay, published her first |
and cleverest novel when she was only |
10, and yet she was s years old before
learning her alphabet and scarcely re-
ceived any regular education at all.
Rachel, you must remember, was a /
girl just turned into her teens when she /
borrowed volume of Racine from a
Jewish peddler in old clothes. On read /
ing the great French tragedies she de- |
cided to become an actress and this
poor, pretty ittle Jewess, the youngest |
of seven children, who had begun life /
as a street singer, on her second appear /
ance on the French stage was greeted as
a great genius. So, you see, my dear,
ability is apt to reveal itself as early with
girls as boys. and these are very, very
few of the worlds great women who