James Parton, Horace Greeley, T. W. Higginson, J. S. C. Abbott, E. M. Hoppin, William Winter, Theodore Tilton, Fanny Fern, Grace Greenwood, Mrs. E. C. Stanton, Women of the age; being natives of the lives and deeds of the most prominent women of the present gentlemen

[92] she spent another year of successful study. Pursuing still the English classics and Latin, she finished in her fourteenth year her school-life at home. Then followed a course of domestic training in the duties of house-keeping, yet not so pressingly as to hinder the private study of the Latin. For the higher ornamental branches she spent parts of two years in Hartford; and, with more than ordinary mental activity and attainment, she takes leave of her school-life. Yet, such was her thirst for learning, that nothing could hinder her studies; and we find her, with the enthusiasm of a scholar, devoting her later girlhood to the study of even the original Hebrew of the Christian Scriptures.

And now begins her career as teacher,--a life which she seems to have chosen scarcely more for want of something to do than from love of teaching itself. Her first experiment had been made in her father's house, and the result confirmed her purpose to make it her life-work. In her nineteenth year, in company with Miss Nancy M. Hyde, a very intimate friend, she opened a select school for girls in Chelsea, now Norwich City. Her interest in the work was very great, and her success no less so. We can readily accept her later testimony that she found her daily employment “less a toil than privilege.” But, through the influence of Mr. Daniel Wadsworth, of Hartford, she was induced to establish for herself a private school for girls in that city; and, in 1814, she entered upon its duties.

During the five years she remained in this school she won a twofold reputation. Her success as teacher was well-nigh unparalleled for the times, and deservingly so; while her influence over the social circles of the city had become no less marked. Her influence over her pupils was something wonderful. They loved her with a love which nothing could repress; and their devotion was as true and lasting as their love. What testimony to the strength of her hold upon