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    306 MADAME SWETCHINE.

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    Tim Biography Of A Hussian Lady Of High ...

    —it- was given—it was proudly worn ! when suddenly another idea rushed into Sophie ' s head . " There is something grander than having

    a watch , " said she , " and that is giving it up of my own free will . " The English reader will smile at this infantine sublimity , so exactly like

    the children in Sandford and Merton . Those were days when virtueself-sacrificeand patriotism flourished all over Europe in

    the largest , capital , letters , and very young people were fed upon Ethics and the Dignity of Man . Some Russian Dr . Johnson must

    have enlarged upon renunciation and the moderation of human wishes before Sophie , for she ran off to lier father and gave up to

    him this j > assionately desired watch , telling him her . motive . He was a wise papafor he looked fixedly at her , took the watch , locked

    It in a drawer , and not a word more was said about it . away Again , M . Soymonof , ' s apartments were enriched with pictures ,

    bronzes , medals , and valuable marbles . Little Sophie lived familiarly with all tlie fabulous or historical personages represented in

    these materials ; but slie could not abide a certain closet into which her father sometimes called her , and which contained several

    nmnimies . The poor child blushed at her own weakness , and determined to overcome itso one day she opened the dreaded door ,

    dashed at the nearest , mummy , took it up and hugged it , and then fell on the floor without sense or motion . Her father heard the

    noise , ran in , and carried her off in his arms , persuading lier witli some difficulty to tell him what was the matter . But the little girl

    had gained her victory ; from that day she felt no more fear of the mummies Something than 1 quaintl she felt y vi of gorous the bus and ts imag and portraits inative ming . led in all this

    child ' s education ; her dolls were very large , had proper names and carried on the varied relations of adult society ; she composed a

    little ballet , entitled the " Faithful and the Frivolous She _23 herclesses , " which she acted and danced to her father and his friends ; and in one

    of the autumn evenings of 1789 , when she was seven years old , M . Soymonof coming home was amazed to find a large gallery

    , which formed an antechamber to his drawing-room , lighted from end to end with an immense number of little candles . Being asked the

    reason of this grand illumination , the child said , " But , papa , must we not celebrate the taking of the Bastille and the setting * free of

    those poor French prisoners ? " This shows the habitual tendency of the conversation of her elders . In truth it was the fashion then in

    all the northern courts of Europe , in Berlin , in Vienna , but more particularly at St . Petersburg ! . to raise the voice against abuse of

    power , and to look forward to , general emancipation of everybody from everything . In a moment of truly royal inspiration , Peter the

    Great had exclaimed , * Alas ! I work at the reformation of my subjectsand I do not know how to reform myself ! _" These noble words

    were , , so to speak , suitable as a device for Catherine and her court , as well as for most of the reformers of the eighteenth century ;

    more given to consider how they might mend the world , or recon-

    306 Madame Swetchine.

    306 MADAME SWETCHINE .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), July 1, 1860, page 306, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01071860/page/18/