she preserved her dignity and showed her good sense by never attempting to play the juvenile.
Mrs. Hamilton, as she was styled after she had put on her cap, has shown, in all her works, great power of analysis; she had studied well the human mind, and the best writers on metaphysics and morals may gain hints from her application of the truths of philosophy how to make their knowledge of practical use, particularly in the art of education. She has shown how the doctrine of the association of ideas may be applied in early education to the formation of habits of the temper, and of the principles of taste and morals. And also, she has shown how all that metaphysicians know of sensation and abstraction, can be applied in the cultivation of the attention, the judgment, and the imagination of children.
But more important still is the influence her writings have had in awakening the attention of mothers, and directing their inquiries rightly—much by exciting them to reflect upon their own minds, and to observe what passes in the minds of their children: she has opened a new field of investigation to women—a field fitted to their domestic habits—to their duties as mothers, and to their business as preceptors of youth, to whom it belongs to give the minds of children those first impressions and ideas which remain the longest, and which influence them often, the most powerfully, through the whole course of life.
Mrs. Hamilton died, after a protracted illness, which she bore with sweet patience, and devout submission to the will of God, on the 23rd. of July, 1816, aged fifty-eight.
HANKE, HENRIETTE WILHELMINA,
Was the daughter of Mr. Arndt, a merchant in Jauer; she was born in 1783. In 1802, she married the pastor Hanke, of Dejherrnfurth; and in 1819, she became a widow. Since which event, she has lived retired with her mother, her time wholly devoted to literary pursuits, and the care of her aged parents. She has written—"The Step-Daughter," published in 1820; "The Twelve Months of the Year," in 1821; "The Hunting Castle of Diana" and "The Garden of Walrys," in 1822; "Pictures of the Heart" and "Claudie," in the year 1823. "The Christmas Tree" was issued in 1824, and "The Female Friends" in 1825. She has written numerous other novels and romances, which have obtained great popularity in Germany. Her works were published in a uniform edition in 1841, in twenty-one volumes.
HARCOURT, AGNES D',
Abbess of the celebrated convent of Longchamp, near Paris, founded by the pious sister of St. Louis, Isabella de France, was the daughter of Juan d'Harcourt. She was appointed Abbess in 1263, two years after the establishment of the convent, by Isabella, and remained so till her death, in November, 1291. Agnes had received an education worthy of her illustrious birth, as was fully proved by the work she left: it was the "Life of Isabella," written with so much naiveté and such an exquisite simplicity, as to be considered one of the most valuable works of the early French writers. Before the revolution of 1789, the Abbey of Longchamp possessed the original manuscript of this work, written with the greatest care, perhaps by Agnes herself, on a roll of vellum.
