aspect; and here the mother, though perhaps no scholar herself, need never despair of her son. What the mother cannot absolutely teach herself, she can. stir up within the mind of her son an ardent desire to learn. And this desire-this ardour-this onward rush, as it often seems to be with impetuous youth, she can direct to worthy objects; she can stimulate, or restrain, by that unseen cord which Nature has put into her hand, and which she can move like a silken rein, without the young courser being sensible that he is either led or driven.

Supposing all to be true that is narrated of the mother of King Alfred, and accepting this for fact, merely in the way of illustration, we do not read that the young princess made the boy a scholar. Yet he afterwards became one, according to the estimate of scholarship amongst those by whom he was surrounded, and that by the overcoming of such difficulties as would have baffled almost any other man. We do not read that Alfred's mother made him a hero,--he was too young for that. But he afterwards became one in the highest sense, though he had first to run through a course less honourable and wise than that which he pursued in later life.

As in the case of Alfred, the seeds sown by the mother may be long in showing fruit. In his first outset his career was neither successful, nor strikingly meritorious. He was only brave in the field of battle, yet that was something. One seed there was, however, of precious growth, from whencesoever derivedhe could reap wisdom from experience he could be corrected by discipline. When his affairs had arrived.

at the most disastrous extremity, he could lay prudence and resolution together, and thus start afresh, undaunted by danger, and undeterred by suffering or privation.

If this is not true greatness, it might be fairly asked what is? And yet all this consists precisely in what comes immediately within the province of the mother to instil, and cherish, and strengthen in her child. An ardent desire after excellence, with a true appreciation of what is excellent—a tendency to reflect and examine before acting, so as to husband resources, and adapt means to ends-a candid looking into self, so as to see wherein there has been error, and how the future may be made an improvement upon the past-these, which seem but little when spoken of, yet are really much when appropriately and earnestly carried out, and above all, when aided, stimulated, and exalted by a true and fervent religion, are exactly those forms of influence under which the mother may most successfully act, and think, and pray, fearing no competitor of equal power with herself; but ever hoping and believing, because this is the duty to which God has called her this is the work which man is waiting to accept at her hands.

V.

THE MOTHER OF HENRY VII.

THE mother of a long line of English sovereigns, and the foundress of many noble institutions, may not inappropriately fill an honoured place in these notices, even if the title of her son to the distinction of true greatness should remain a matter of some doubt. Margaret Beaufort, however, was a lady so eminent in her position, and in the influences which, through her instrumentality, were brought to bear upon the destinies of her country, and of the many illustrious individuals with whom by the circumstances of rank and the ties of relationship she was connected, that if in any respect she failed to transmit her own virtues to her son, it can only be attributed to those accumulated misfortunes which attended his early life, and which for so long a period deprived him of all personal intercourse with his noble mother.

For much that might throw light upon this intercourse while it continued, we must be satisfied with mere supposition. For all the authority which is necessary for the purpose in hand, I have gladly availed

myself of the services of a lady's pen,* proud that in this, as well as in so many other recent instances, the pleasant duty of bringing forward into fresh prominence illustrious female names connected with history, has devolved upon the patience and the fidelity of English women. In the authenticity of such records, now so profusely scattered before us, I place sufficient confidence. It would be as impertinent in the writer of these brief notices, as unnecessary to the furtherance of my purpose, to cavil about facts, on many of which historians have failed to agree, or to be solicitous to refer only and directly to what are called the highest authorities. Whenever it is possible for me to refer with safety to the writings of women, the reader must not be surprised if I do so from preference, believing that, from the peculiar bent and structure of the female mind, I shall find in such writings more of the moral from which I desire especially to draw my conclusions, than in those which might justly be preferred for merits of a purely historical order.

After all the pains bestowed upon delineating the character of Margaret Beaufort in the work alluded to, it is but indistinctly that we can behold the individual as a woman. In her acts of benevolence, in the arts which she so liberally encouraged, and in the now venerable institutions still retaining their association with the honoured name of the Lady Margaret, we read through her works, perhaps more than would ever have been otherwise remembered, of the enlightened understanding and the noble heart of the lady herself. As a woman we can only imagine her prudent, digni

Life of Margaret Beaufort, by Caroline Halsted. Prize Essa5,

fied, and even holy; purified in the school of affliction, and separated alike from the follies and the vices of the age in which she lived. With all the pride of her illustrious descent from John of Gaunt, and something like a foreshadowed glory about her as the mother of future kings; above all, with the majesty of a woman self-governed, habitually restraining every outward manifestation of impulsive feeling, yet devoutly pouring forth the full tide of her affections to God,-under this image, but still dim in the distance of time, we can only look for the character of Margaret Beaufort as we look for the moon on a misty night, knowing that the radiant orb is there in its beauty, though concealed from us, because of the general diffusion of light through the dense atmosphere which our eyes are unable to penetrate.

Margaret Beaufort was born in the year 1441, allied on her father's side by immediate descent, through only one generation, to John of Gaunt, and on her mother's, to the ancient Earls of Warwick. Her father, the Duke of Somerset, died while Margaret was yet an infant, leaving the care of his only child, the heiress of vast possessions, to the widowed mother, who, however, soon married again, according to the custom of the times, when the guardianship of an heiress was an office attended with considerable difficulty, and sometimes even with danger.

At her residence in Bedfordshire, the Duchess of Somerset maintained a splendid establishment, surrounding herself with all that was regarded as belonging to the dignity of hereditary rank; and amidst which it is but reasonable to suppose that the educa