She may, notwithstanding, perform all the duties of her position-be that position what it may-with ability and credit, and thus fairly become entitled to the term Clever Girl.

Accomplishments are not, however, the essentials of existence. We cannot live on music; the finest notes of the most charming singer never dissipated a sense of hunger; the most glorious creation of the pencil never shielded the exposed from the rigours of the wintry blast.

"To say-my wife is fair, feeds well, loves company, Is free of speech, sings, plays, and dances well; Where virtue is, these are more virtuous."

"Where virtue is!" that is where the essentials are. No man, or woman either, would quarrel with accomplishments; would they not rather praise them, feel subdued by their soothing influence, and find themselves insensibly drawn from low sordid thoughts, to the contemplation of high objects, and, it might be, of holy purposes? There is no one word, then, to be said against accomplishments; but everything to be said for essentials. When Othello was recounting to the gentle Desdemona his dangers by flood and field, we are told that:

"The house affairs would draw her thence."

This Venetian lady, whose beauty had become a proverb, and whose gentle nature elevated her to the foremost rank of Shakespere's "Heroines," was con

cerned with the "house affairs," and did not hesitate to interrupt the relation of her gallant lover that she might attend to them. She was, indeed, intensely interested in the "hair-breadth 'scapes" of the dusky Moor; but the duties of her home must have her first consideration, and then she would listen with a "greedy ear."

There are, however, positions in which accomplishments become essentials; when music, singing, or painting may be honourably allowed to absorb the whole time and attention; because they are the source, or intended source, from whence the means of living are to be derived. That girl who has resolved upon self-dependence, and who is intensely absorbed in self-culture as the means of self-maintenance, presents one of the most cheering sights in all this world. She says in effect-"If a proper and desirable opportunity is presented for my entering the marriage state, I will not reject it; but, in the mean time, I will secure the means of living, so that if such an opportunity is never presented, I shall not feel myself as a waif surging amid the useless elements of society." Bravely resolved! The carking care and gangrene which have clogged the heart of many a gentle girl, hurrying her before her time to the narrow house, would never have accumulated, would never have exercised its baneful influence under such a selfsustaining high-minded resolve.

The following pages will furnish evidence, if evidence were needed, that woman possesses purpose,

will, determination-more than this, that she can attain to a height of perfection in the various professions which enables her to "hold her own" in the presence of the most gifted of the opposite sex; the "Clever Girl" merged into the "Clever Woman," useful in her day and generation, and leaving her mark and impress, which will be seen in ages yet

O come.

(OF OUR TIME);

AND

How they became Famous Women

CLARA NOVELLO:

THE SWEET SINGER AND GIFTED GIRL.

WE are indebted to France, to Germany, and to Italy, for many glorious children of song, and to Sweden most of all, for the one nightingale that flooded our public halls with the sweetest strains, and at the same time filled our hearts and memories with deeds of goodness and works of mercy. It was reserved to Jenny Lind to be more lovingly and affectionately remembered than wondrously admired. Gifted as she was-and surely no human being was ever so gifted-yet her native goodness, her charming simplicity, her love for the suffering, for the outcast, and the poor, has embalmed her memory in the national heart as a sacred recollection, and almost a divine trust. The gift of song, like every other gift, has its duties as well

B

as its pleasures. Its possessor had need to look to its exercise, as to a solemn responsibility, remembering its power to excite to deeds of daring, to deeds of goodness, and to deeds of charity. The note which thrills the heart with sweetness may be laden with purpose and sentiment, and contain a lesson which shall be remembered a life long. The words which fall gentlest on the ear, in the service of song, may make the deepest impress on the heart. In this service, surely, the pre-eminently gifted Clara Novello has discharged her trust faithfully and well. When she sang-as she of all vocalists knew how to sing "I know that my Redeemer liveth!" the glorious truth, as much as the glorious strain, commanded the sustained admiration of the listening crowd.

Miss Clara Anastasia Novello is the fourth daughter of Mr. Vincent Novello, an organist and musician, who has rendered important service to the musical art, by arranging Mozart's Masses after his own cultivated taste, as well as other enduring works which will live to perpetuate his fame. His gifted daughter was born in London on the 10th of June, 1818, very early giving evidence of possessing extraordinary musical powers, so that at nine years of age she was committed to the care of Mr. John Robinson, of York, whose business it was to induct her into the art which she subsequently so adorned, subjecting her to a thorough course of training in the rudiments of a professional life.