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and heard the physician, with whom I was intimate, speak in
strong terms of their services; he said, There are no such
nurses." I saw them in the wards attending on the sick, and in
the chapel of the hospital on their knees washing the floor. They
were obviously a superior class of women, and the contrast was
striking between these menial offices and the respectability of
their dress and appearance; but the Beguinage of Ghent is one
of their principal establishments, and, spending a Sunday there, I
went in the evening to vespers. It was twilight when I entered
the chapel. It was dimly lighted by two or three tall tapers before
the altar and a few candles at the remotest end of the building
in the orchestra; but the body of the chapel was in deep gloom,
filled from end to end with several hundred of these nuns seated
in rows, in their dark dresses and white cowls, silent and motion-
less, excepting now and then when one of them started up, and
stretching out her arms in the attitude of the crucifixion, stood in
that posture many minutes, then sank, and disappeared among
the crowd. The gloom of the chapel-the long line of these
unearthly-looking figures, like so many corpses propped up in
their grave-clothes-the dead silence of the building, once only
interrupted by a few voices in the distant orchestra chanting ves-
pers, was one of the most striking sights I ever beheld.
To some
readers the occasional attitude of the nuns may seem an absurd
expression of fanaticism, but they are any thing but fanatics.
Whoever is accustomed to the manners of continental nations,
knows that they employ grimace in every thing. I much doubt
whether, apart from the internal emotion of piety, the external
expression of it is graceful in any one, save only in a little child
in his night-shirt, on his knees saying his evening prayer.

The Beguinage, or residence of the Beguines at Ghent, is a little town of itself, adjoining the city, and inclosed from it. The transition from the crowded streets of Ghent to the silence and solitude of the Beguinage is very striking. The houses in which the Beguines reside are contiguous, each having its small garden, and on the door the name, not of the resident, but of the protecting saint of the house: these houses are ranged into streets. There is also the large church, which we visited, and a burialground, in which there are no monuments. There are upwards

of six hundred of these nuns in the Beguinage of Ghent, and about six thousand in Brabant and Flanders. They receive sick persons into the Beguinage, and not only nurse but support them until they are recovered; they also go out to nurse the sick. They are bound by no vow excepting to be chaste and obedient while they remain in the order; they have the power of quitting it and returning again into the world whenever they please, but this it is said they seldom or never do. They are most of them women unmarried, or widows past the middle of life. In 1244, a synod at Fritzlau decided that no Beguine should be younger than forty years of age. They generally dine together in the refectory; their apartments are barely yet comfortably furnished, and, like all the habitations of Flanders, remarkably clean. About their origin and name little is known by the Beguines themselves, or is to be found in books. For the following particulars I am chiefly indebted to the Histoire des Ordres Monastiques, (tome viii.) Some attribute both their origin and name to St. Begghe, who lived in the seventh century: others to Lambert le Begue, who lived about the end of the twelfth century. This latter saint is said to have founded two communities of them at Liege, one for women, in 1173, the other for men, in 1177. After his death they multiplied fast, and were introduced by St. Louis to Paris, and other French cities. The plan flourished in France, and was adopted under other forms and names. In 1443, Nicholas Rollin, Chancellor to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, founded a hospital at Beaune, and brought six Beguines from Malines to attend upon it, and the hospital became so famed for the care of its patients, that the opulent people of the neighborhood when sick were often removed to it, preferring its attendance to what they received at home. In one part of the hospital there was a large square court, bordered with galleries leading to apartments suitable to such patients; when they quitted the hospital the donations which they left were added to its funds.

The Sœurs de la Charité of France are another order of religious nurses, but different from the Beguines in being bound by monastic vows. They originated in a charity sermon, perhaps the most useful and extensive in its influence that ever was preached. Vincent de Paul, a celebrated missionary, preaching

T

at Chatillon, in 1617, recommended a poor sick family of the
neighborhood to the care of his congregation. At the conclusion
of the sermon a number of persons visited the sick family with
bread, wine, meat, and other comforts. This led to the forma-
tion of a committee of charitable women, under the direction of
Vincent de Paul, who went about relieving the sick poor of the
neighborhood, and met every month to give an account of their
proceedings to their superior. Such was the origin of the cele-
Wherever this mission-

brated order of the Soeurs de la Charité.
ary went he attempted to form similar establishments. From the
country they spread to cities, and first to Paris, where, in 1629,
they were established in the Parish of St. Saviour.

About 1625, a female devotee, named Le Gras, joined the order of the Sœurs de la Charité. She was married young to M. Le Gras, one of whose family had founded a hospital at Puy, but becoming a widow in 1625, in the thirty-fourth year of her age, she made a vow of celibacy, and dedicated the rest of her life to the service of the poor. In her, Vincent de Paul found a great accession. Under his direction she took many journeys, visiting and inspecting the establishments which he had founded. She was commonly accompanied by a few pious ladies. Many women of quality enrolled themselves in the order, but the superiors were assisted by inferior servants. The Hôtel Dieu was the first hospital in Paris where they exercised their vocation. This they visited every day, supplying the patients with comforts above what the hospital afforded, and administering, besides, religious consolation. By degrees they spread into all the provinces of France, and at length the Queen of Poland requested Mademoiselle Le Gras, for though a widow that was her title, to send her a supply of Sœurs de la Charité, who were thus established in Varsovia, in 1652. At length, after a long life spent in the service of charity and religion, Mademoiselle Le Gras died on the 15th of March, 1660, nearly seventy years of age, and for a day and a half her body lay exposed to the gaze of the pious.

A country clergyman, who spent several years in various parts of France, gives an account of the present state of the order, which, together with what I have gathered from other sources, is in substance as follows:-It consists of women of all ranks, many

of them of the higher orders. After a year's novitiate in the convent, they take a vow which binds them to the order for the rest of their lives. They have two objects, to attend the sick, and to educate the poor; they are spread all over France, are the superior nurses at the hospitals, and are to be found in every town, and often even in villages. Go into the Paris hospitals at almost any hour of the day, and you will see one of these respectable looking women, in her black gown and white hood, passing slowly from bed to bed, and stopping to inquire of some poor wretch what little comfort he is fancying will alleviate his sufferings. If a parochial curé wants assistance in the care of his flock, he applies to the order of les Sœurs de la Charité. Two of them (for they generally go in couples) set out on their charitable mission: wherever they travel their dress protects them. "Even more enlightened persons than the common peasantry hail it as a happy omen when on a journey a Soeur de la Charité happens to travel with them, and even instances are recorded in which their presence has saved travellers from the attacks of robbers." During the Revolution they were rarely molested. They were the only religious order permitted openly to wear their dress and pursue their vocation. Government gives a hundred francs a year to each sister, besides her travelling expenses; and if the parish where they go cannot maintain them, they are supported out of the funds of the order. In old age they retire to their convent, and spend the rest of their lives in educating the novitiates. Thus, like the vestal virgins of old, the first part of their life is spent in learning their duties, the second in practising them, and the last in teaching them.

105. THE MOCKING BIRD.

ALEXANDER WILSON.

[ONE of the most splendid works of Natural History ever produced is the "American Ornithology" of Alexander Wilson, in nine folio volumes, full of colored engravings. This work was published in the United States, from 1808 to 1813. No learned society gave it encouragement; no distinguished

name in the world of science was its author. A poor Scotch pedler, who had lef his native country in the hope of bettering his fortune, was the writer and the artist who, unaided except by the general public support, produced the most superb book of its class that the world had then seen. Alexander Wilson was born at Paisley, in 1766. He was apprenticed to a weaver, and afterwards worked as a journeyman at his trade. Subsequently he became a pedler, and wrote verses whilst he rambled about the country, selling his wares and endeavoring to procure subscriptions for a volume of his poems. He was thus unconsciously laying the foundation for his great work. His early habits of poetical composition gave him a command of language; his wandering habits fitted him for the laborious journeys which he took through the great American continent. In the United States, he was weaver, pedler, land-measurer, and schoolmaster. His taste for natural history was developed by Mr. Bartram, a celebrated botanist, and he was taught to draw by Mr. Lawson, an engraver. At length, in 1808, he published the first volume of his "Ornithology." With this volume under his arm he wandered from town to town, endeavoring to obtain subscribers with small success; but he persevered, sometimes rowing himself in a skiff upon the great rivers, at others plunging into the depths of the forests with his fowling-piece, and his scanty store of biscuits and dried beef. Whenever he shot a remarkable bird, he made a drawing of it and a description on the spot. His book soon came to have a European reputation. Well did he deserve his hard-earned fame. As a writer he has a merit which seldom belongs to systematic naturalists; his descriptions are at once accurate and brilliant. He looks at Nature with the eye of a poet; he describes with an exactness which might satisfy the most rigid classifier. Wilson died from a sudden illness in Philadelphia, in 1813. His book has been reprinted in several forms in this country.]

Among the many novelties which the discovery of this part of the western continent first brought into notice, we may reckon that of the Mocking-bird, which is not only peculiar to the new world, but inhabits a very considerable extent of both North and South America; having been traced from the states of New England to Brazil; and also among many of the adjacent islands. These birds are, however, much more numerous in those states south, than in those north, of the river Delaware; being generally migratory in the latter, and resident (at least many of them) in the former. A warm climate, and low country, not far from the sea, seem most congenial to their nature; accordingly, we find the species less numerous to the west than east of the great range of the Alleghany, in the same parallels of latitude. In the severe winter of 1808-9, I found these birds, occasionally, from Freder

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