a single leaf falling from his laurel. Bat, man-like, he did not choose to acknowledge that he had been helped by a woman, while availing himself of the advantage.
FONTE, MODERATA,
The assumed name of a celebrated Venetian lady, whose real name was Modesta Pazzo. She was born at Venice, in 1555, and became an orphan in her infancy. While young, she was placed in the convent of the nuns of Martha of Venice; bat afterwards left it, and was married. She lived twenty years very happily with her husband, and died in 1592. She learned poetry and Latin with the greatest ease; and is said to have had so prodigious a memory, that, after hearing a sermon only once, she could repeat it word for word. She wrote a poem, entitled "II Floridoro," and another on the "Passion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ." Besides these and other poems, she wrote a book in prose, which was not published till after her death, called "Dei Meriti delle Donne," in which she maintains that women are not inferior in understanding or merit to men. None of her works are now extant.
FORCE, CHARLOTTE ROSE DE CAUMENT DE LA,
A French poetess, who died in 1724, aged seventy Her "Castle in Spain," a poem; and her "Secret History of Burgundy," a romance; her tales, and other works, possess considerable merit; but nothing she wrote has retained a permanent place in French literature.
FOUGERET, ANNA FRANCESCA DONTREMONT,
Was born at Paris in 1745, in a family where, by example and instruction, she was brought up to know and practice the virtues of Christian. Her father was an eminent barrister; and her mother, descended from a very respectable family, was a woman of superior ability, and esteemed for her many virtues. Anna was married when very young to M. de Fougeret, receiver-general of the finance. At the head of an establishment of which she had the management, and living in an extended circle of society, she found time to be the instructress of her children, whom she educated in a most careful manner. Her love for her own infants awakened her sympathy for some unfortunates whom circumstances brought under her notice. Her father, who was a director of the hospitals, often deplored the miserable situation of that of the foundlings, where numbers of babes perished for want of proper nutrition, impossible to be given, and from the bad air of overcrowded rooms. The pictures of this distress deeply moved the heart of Madame de Fougeret; nor was she satisfied with a barren commiseration; she pondered over the subject until she devised the remedy; but her plans required more money than a private purse could supply. True benevolence is invincible. Madame de Fougeret, abdicating all personal merit in this good act, communicated her ideas to the Duchess de Cosse, whose rank and power, united with all benevolence and piety, rendered her the fit person to set on foot this useful establishment Soon all the opulent ladies of Paris became interested, everything was arranged, every obstacle surmounted, and the "Maternal Charity" became an institution.
