not considered sin. But it was sin, as the event showed. God, from the first, ordained that the union of the sexes, to be blessed, cannot subsist but in a marriage made holy by uniting, indissolubly and faithfully, one man with one woman. This holy union between Abraham and Sarah, which had withstood all temptations and endured all trials, was now embittered to the wife by the insolence and ingratitude of the concubine.
That the subsequent conduct of Sarah was right, under the circumstances, the angel of the Lord bore witness, when he found Hagar in the wilderness, and said, "Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands."
So, too, when Hagar and her son Ishmael were sent away, God distinctly testified to Abraham that it should be thus—that Sarah was right. There are but two blemishes on the bright perfection of Sarah's character—her impatience for the promised blessing, and her hasty falsehood, told from fear, when she denied she had laughed. From the first fault came the troubles of her life through the connection of her husband with Hagar. She died at the great age of one hundred and twenty-seven years, and "Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her;" true testimonials of her worth and his love. He purchased for her a sepulchre, at a great price, "the field of Macpelah, before Mamre," which became afterwards the site of Hebron, an important city. Sarah's death occurred B. C. 1860.
SARTE, DAUPHINE DE,
A French lady, wife of the Marquis de Robias, wrote treatises on philosophy, and was distinguished for her mathematical knowledge. She excelled in music, and had a particular talent for composing it. She died at Aries, in 1685.
SAUSSURE, MADAME NECKER DE,
Was the daughter of M. de Saussure, and born in the city of Geneva about the year 1768. Her father, a man of profound learning, was very careful to cultivate the mind of his daughter, and yet very fearful she would display her learning pedantically.
At the age of nineteen she married M. Necker, nephew of the celebrated minister of finance, and, as was then considered, very brilliant prospects opened before the young couple. The Revolution destroyed these hopes, but it brought the uncle and nephew and their families together, and Madame de Saussure became intimate with Madame de Staël. "From that time my thoughts were more particularly directed towards moral science and literature," says Madame de Saussure, in a letter to an American friend.
The troubles of Geneva obliging M. Saussure and his family to pass some years in Switzerland, where the education of their children became the occupation of both parents, it was not till after the decease of her husband that Madame de Saussure began to publish her writings: she thus describes her feelings and opinions on her own authorship:—
"It was not until my youth had passed that I appeared before the public under my own name, and I congratulate myself that it was so. The works that I should have written in early life would not have satisfied me now. The attempt to write would probably have been beneficial to me; but there are so many causes of excite-
