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[285] to found; nor that at sixty-seven she could cross the ocean, and mingle in the exercises and enjoy the honors of the World's Educational Convention, and thence make the tour of France, Switzerland, Germany, and Belgium tributary still to her zeal for observation and learning. But not alone in these literary and educational works has Mrs. Willard used her great powers. Her religious character has been also as carefully educated, and an effective Christian culture has been a constant aim and triumph in her work. Uniting with the Episcopal church in Burlington, she has ever since been a devout and worthy communicant. In all her study and work, her appeal has been to God's word for her standard and law. She spoke with great deliberation in her weighty charge to those whom she would commission with the solemn trust of teachers, when she said to them, in all the seriousness of her earnest convictions: “So far, however, from depending on set times for the whole discharge of the duty of training the young to piety and virtue, you are, during all your exercises, to regard it as the grand object of your labors.” Of her active and wide-reaching benevolence the record has been a private one. Yet many and timely have been her benefactions which the angel has recorded on high. We know this much, that scores of the young women whom she has aided to secure the education, which, without such aid, they could not have secured, are still grateful for her quick sympathies and generous aid. It is safe to say that twenty thousand dollars would not now make Mrs. Willard's exchequer good for these offerings to the cause of woman's education. But we cannot linger longer on these lessons of her useful and honored life. Mrs. Willard is still living, and as we might, from all we have learned of her former life, expect, her latest years are not without their rich and worthy fruits. The serene dignity of age well befits now the form which
S. M. Betts and Company. Hartford, Conn. 1871.
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