Chapter 7

AN EXCELLENT DAUGHTER.

Miss Hessel bound the best of all ornaments, filial love and obedience, on her brow. This is the only commandment of the ten that has the promise joined to it, as if to show the place it holds in the Divine estimation. Without this virtue we should think very little of all there might be besides. Some daughters go abroad seeking pleasure where it never can be found; but Miss Hessel remained at home,giving pleasure that was more cheering to her parents than the brightest beam that ever shot from the sun, and more precious than all the riches the broad earth could have poured into their lap. As a daughter, she was anxious to do her duty. The discharge of that duty brings with it innumerable blessings; its nonperformance has been the first step in the downward course of untold thousands, and will be, we fear, of thousands more. Her strong filial affection is exhibited in the following sentences:—“There is one who demands all my sympathy and affection; who as a wife and a mother, has discharged the important duties of her station in a manner which evinced the strength of her conjugal and maternal affection, and whose peculiarly trying circumstances gave an opportunity for the full development of that self-devoted disinterested, Christian heroism, which her children will remember with gratitude, when her name and the memory of her high work, will be enshrined only in the hearts of those who witnessed such devotedness. Of such fortitude in trial, steadfastness in adversity, and dauntless energy when despair would have overwhelmed some hearts, and, above all, of such unassuming piety, fame speaks not. But these are engraved in a more enduring page, and will have their reward when earth and its emblazoned pomp and pride shall have passed away like a vision.” Well done fair lass! The recording angel takes notes of thy dutiful devotion, and publishes it beyond the domestic hearth. Happy mother, whose toils, sufferings, and sacrifices, deserved such recompense!

A LOVING SISTER.

As a sister it would be difficult to over-estimate Miss Hessel’s worth. Being wise and virtuous, she swayed an influence of untold power. How often have we observed the difference between young men who have enjoyed, when under the home-roof, the companionship of a sister, and those who were never so favoured. Sisters, with few exceptions, are kind and considerate; and home is a dearer spot to all because they tread its hearth. How touching are Miss Hessel’s reminiscences of her beloved and highly-gifted brother, who died when she was only nine years old. In a letter to her biographer she says, August 16th: “As I wrote the date at the top of this letter, the recollection flashed across my mind that this is the anniversary of dear John’s birthday. He has been nearly seventeen years in heaven. Seventeen years of uninterrupted progression in knowledge, in holiness, in bliss, with a mind unfettered in its researches and a soul unencumbered by infirmity or sin in its aspirations! How incomparably nobler he must be now than when he first entered his heavenly mansion! I did not tell you how of late years the idea of him has strangely interwoven itself with my inner being.” How faithful generally is a sister’s love. Place her by the side of the sick couch, let her have to count over the long dull hours of night, and wait, alone and sleepless, the struggle of the grey dawn into the chamber of suffering—let her be appointed to this ministry for father, mother, sister, or brother, and she feels no weariness, nor owns recollection of self. Miss Hessel never entered themarriage relation. She is not to be undervalued because of her freedom from conjugal engagements. From the ranks of maidenhood have risen some of the noblest specimens of noble womanhood. Long will our soldiers talk of Miss Nightingale moving to and fro on the shores of the Euxine, like an angel of mercy. Long will our navvies think of the happy hours spent in Beckenham, where Miss Marsh taught them to live “soberly, righteously, and godly.” Long will Miss Faithful be remembered by the needy of her own sex in pursuit of employment.

HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT.

The whole household duties were performed by the mother and her two daughters, and Miss Hessel, in consequence of the delicate health of her sister, took more than her share. After making some observations on “Todd’s Student’s Manual,” she writes her brother: “I am not speaking of it as a whole, for what was written expressly for students cannot be applicable to the case of a woman whose character must ever be domestic, while she humbly strives to be intelligent. I detest the word ‘intellectual’ when applied to a woman. It is impossible for my mind to separate it from those horrid visions of untidy drawers, unmended stockings, neglected families, and all the other characteristics of a slatternly wife.” About six years afterwards, she says to a friend: “I have just been reading an article in a periodical which has amused me greatly. It is on ‘Female Authors.’ Its purport is that an unmarried woman, once fairly convicted of literature, must never expect to sign hermarriage-contract, but may make up her mind to solitariness in the world she presumes to create for herself. Miss Landon is the only scribe recognised ‘who was ever invited to change the name she had made famous.’ All married literary women, it is asserted, ‘wore orange-blossom, before they assumed the bay-leaf.’ It is enough to frighten one if matrimony were the great end of our existence. But as I believe that a life of usefulness, in the fullest and best sense of that word—universal usefulness, if you will admit the term—is the highest good of woman, I think that matrimony even should be subservient to this end.” Miss Hessel, to her credit be it said, never neglected domestic duties for literary pursuits. Her aim was not to win for herself the notice of the public, but to build up a monument of usefulness—to make her life a noble and useful one—to build well “both the seen and unseen parts.” “The mistaken idea,” says an excellent lady, “that has generally prevailed, that woman’s work comes intuitively to her, and requires no learning, has caused, and is causing, a vast amount of misery and mischief.”

CHARACTER OF MISS HESSEL.

When a girl, Miss Hessel was tall, delicate, and sickly; a glance at her pale countenance was enough to satisfy any intelligent observer that the activity of the brain was morbid. Rapid growth contributed to physical debility; and at one period she suffered a good deal from tic-douloureux. When she became a woman, she was well-proportioned. Her features resembled those of her sainted brother, and intimateacquaintance was not necessary to prove that there were other than physical approximations.

The intellect was keen, comprehensive, and discriminating. In these hollow times, the female world teems with fantastic puppets of affectation and vanity, but here we have no creature of carnality, but an intelligent woman, with large reflective powers. A refined ideality was early developed, and carefully cultivated by the thorough mastering of our best literature, and especially of our best poetry. In consequence of her capacious memory, and strong imagination, she became almost a reflection of her favourite authors. Her love for poetry, flowers, and everything beautiful in nature or in art, amounted to a passion.

The moral character of Miss Hessel was of still superior glory. Of high spirit she gave ample proof when a pupil, and not beyond her eighth year. In the master’s absence one day, an occurrence transpired which kindled his displeasure. He thought Eliza’s younger sister was the chief culprit, and ordered her into the “naughty corner.” Eliza, knowing her sister’s innocence, rose from her seat, marched boldly forth, brought away the victim, and defiantly exclaimed, “My sister shall not be put into the corner!” However, unmagisterial acquiescence was deemed prudent. To fortitude she added great love of humanity. A purer benevolence has seldom glowed even in the bosom of woman. Of disinterestedness her whole life was one bright example. Like all young people, she had many faults, but as she approached womanhood, she discovered and by Divine assistance corrected them. Her chief excellencies are within the reach of all.

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