The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1906-09-04

III
I.--cd the Genius Of ii Great Heart
Her Wonderful NentaiitN-fieT
sympathy for Those in Distress
Charles Dickens Paints Her Lo'eIi-
nc~- 1T Efghtccn-iicr unconscious
Aupcal to English ChiValry-ifcr
Home Happy and Her Children
copyright 1906. by Joseph -. BoWles)
lNrs. Frances H1dgzou Burnett
NOW Mrs. stephen Townsend, is too
well known to require any word OF m
PRODUCTION. An English woman by
bifln and present residence. though
ncr fame wa made during the many
gears tina she resided in the United
States. her admiration for tho late
queen Of England a. shown in the
following article, comes from her
heart. The author Of That Lass o.
Lowrics.' Little LORD Fauntleroy'l
"A Lady Of Quality" His Grace Of
Marchioncss,' writes Of the great
queen with her usual literary charm.)
IN all the countries Of the civilized
world there prevailed q spirit Of sym
pathetic sadness. over every city,
1owu and hamlet in England. Scotland
and Wales there hung q cloud. III
great. rich ancient Loncon people
walked the streets with grave faces.
Festivities were postponed, Soclal
plans were altered. In the old
churches aye were offered. one
closing anthem was played with 3or-
roWfuI softness which made it a pray
CT in itself and those who heard passed
out into the air with tears. This be-
cause one WOlnan-one aged
lay dying.
It was 81 years after a night on
which Il gfrI-a mere child creature
in her teens-Was awakened from her
sleep to be told that she vas the
queen of England. There is a popular
picture OF the incident, in which she
stands, touchingly young and grave,
holding out a hand that an old man
who kncels before her may kiss it in
dOinE homage to his sovereign.
Her sense of the responsibility of
her position was q thing like genius.
In all things touching it she -; al
ways grave, always Sagacious and
beautifully earnest. A young girl
even Il u WOman-mIght have
been forgiven many things for which
the nation this young creature was
born to rule was never called upon to
forgive her.
one very interesting feature of her
life was that PEOPLE made no habit of
speaking of her as a brilliant woman.
II has been said tina she was good it
has been accepted that she was intelli-
gent. but comparatively little stress
has been laid upon her brain power.
Yet there has been no other queen
in the history Of the world whose
reign was 50 marked by forward
movement and who herself 50 mOVCd
with her time and so strongly in
huenced it. She had a genius for rec
titude. a genius of the conscience, md,
it may be added, the genius of q great
heart. But she possessed also a fore
sight that was extraordinary. one
truth is surely fiXed-that in the flu
1Jtr no ,nnnrI Of + .aJ- ~ -,nJitip-
or social ethics can point to an act
of Victoria of England which WAS
either unjust. ignOble or careless. To
each thing she did she brought all
that the gods gave her of the Tea-
Soning of both heart and brain. All
hcr use of pOWer ended to the de
VelOpment of public good, to the aid
Ing Of humane ends, to the broaden
ing of the ways for the intelligent.
the striving and the sane in ambi-
ton.
The time has gone by when for a
woman to be virtuOus vas all that
was demanded of her. This time
passed in VictOria'S day. Its passing
was the inevitable result of the de-
vcIOpment of the race and of the in
crease of its mental desireS-but it
would not have passed with such ease
and rapidity in England if the woman
who sat upon the throne had been
merely a collection of moralities, how
EoeVer excellent and necessary to so
cial safety. England-cOnservative, OBJ
S%tinate. pugnaciOusIy self-centered-is
a ~singularly large portion of the
WOrld-Its observation-disclosures is
sufficiently powerful to be far-reach-
ing. The bearing and methods of its
ruler are of significance and weight.
The great Victorian era was marked
by the advance of all things intellect
ual-by the elevation and fostering Of
tho u y I hNv tIc aInrtinn n md nnpnIJ -
agcrcnt of intentionally the intelli-
gent consideration of ethics. This
woman of the nineteenth century who
was born to WELD a scepter, was a
Student-a reader of great works and
small. a learner Of languages, a con-
nois&eur of pictures, q musician, a
creature full of interest in every mans
and every WOman's-Work whether
it was imaginative or technical. Size
regarded no thing lightly. Her con-
science, her Wonderful mentality. her
faithful kindness, gave time and
thought to all.
What one is chiefly struck by as
one looks back over long years is the
naturalneSS, the normal processes
with which her power grew. Her in
t1uenCe was cumulative. AS q child OF
1S-a pretty creature with roses In
the brim of her quaint bOnnet-Snc
and her touching youth were chivaI-
rously adOred. There is a charming
letter of Charles Dickens, written IN
his early manhood. III which he play
fully describes his hopeless passion
for a beautiful young lady he has seen
walking in a garden. In his own in
Imltabie way he paints her Ioveliness
ana IT'S effect Dor his susceptible
temperament, his delight in her and
MS frantic despair at the hOpelessness
of his flame. He ends by the confess
SION that the Incompatible she is the
Young queen of England, whom he
has beheld as she walked in the gar
Den of her palace. 1t can easily be
imagined that many of the young male
SUBJECTS IN secret sWore loyalty to her.
and It may be that some of them
proved their faith on Crimean and
Indian battlehelds when they were of
TIper years.
She began by pleasing Establishment
from the first, by an unconscious an
peal to their chivalry and the best
quahtles of the sturdy insular nature.
he inOl-- on 5000.