To the praises thus enthusiastically lavished upon her son, by the noble Frenchman, his hostess only replied, "I am not surprised at what George has done, for he was always a good boy."

Thus did the true greatness of this extraordinary woman often manifest itself. It was her pleasure frequently to revert to the early days of her august Son, and to express her approbation of his dutiful and upright conduct; but she never appeared in the slightest degree clated by the honors that were showered " 'thick and fast" upon his glorious name.

With unaffected piety, she referred each and every occurrence of life to the Great First Cause, and when the notes of jubulant praise swelled high, even above the din of battle and the wailings of a nation's despair, it was her earnest maternal aspiration that the good boy" of her early care, might never "forget himself!"

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Mrs. Washington was always remarkable for that unequivocal proof of superiority, the powerful influence she exerted over the minds of others.

Her ideas of the respect due to her as a parent, remained unchanged either by the lapse of time, or by the development of mighty events, with which her wonderful Son was so closely identified. Ever his trusted counsellor and friend, to her he was always the same

in relative position. to her the early discipline of his extraordinary intellect, and of his high moral nature; and to her he was indebted for the sage advice and prudent guidance of maturer years.

To her he owed his existence;

Nor did her son manifest the slightest dissent from this sentiment. We are informed by onet well entitled to be regarded as unquestionable authority, that “to the last moments of his venerable parent he yielded to her will the most implicit obedience and felt for her person and character the highest respect and the most enthusiastic attachment.'

Perhaps the life of this celebrated lady afforded no more convincing proof of the genuine nobleness of her character, than was evinced hy the constancy with which she maintained the peculiar sentiments and principles of her youth. We may believe that a mind less perfectly balanced, would have rendered, at least, an unconscious homage to the power of circumstances

*This peculiarity forcibly reminds us of an expressive incident in the life of the mother of the Buonapartes-Madame Mere. On one occasion, when the Emperor Napoleon gave audience to the several members of his family, while walking in one of the galleries of the Tuilleries, among his other relatives, his mother advanced towards him. The Emperor extended his hand to her to kiss, as he had done when his brothers and sisters approached him, "No!" said she, "you are the King, the Emperor of all the rest, but you are my son!" We leave our readers to draw the contrast irresistibly suggested by this anecdote, between the Republican Statesman and the Emperor of all the French.

† G. W. P. Custis, Esq., the grand-son of Mrs. Martha Washington, to whose interesting "Recollections" we are indebted for most of the particulars relative to the life of Mrs. W., now in the possession of the liter ary public.

so novel and so imposing as those in which she was placed.

It was Mrs. Washington's habit, during the latter years of her life, to repair daily to a secluded spot near her dwelling, formed by overhanging rocks and trees. There, isolated from worldly thoughts and objects, she sought in devout prayer and meditation, most appropriate preparation for the great change which she was admonished by her advanced age, might nearly await her.

But one of the many weaknesses that usually characterize humanity, was manifested by this heroic woman. Upon the approach of a thunder-storm she invariably retired to her own apartment and remained there until calmness was restored to the elements. This almost constitutional timidity, was occasioned by a singularly distressing incident of her youth-the instant death, from the effects of lightning, of a young friend, who was, at the moment when the accident occurred, sitting close beside her.

The appearance of Mrs. Washington is said to have been pleasing. Her countenance was agreeable and highly expressive, and her person well proportioned and of average height.

CHAPTER VI.

She goes unto the Rock sublime

Where halts above the Eternal Sea, the shuddering

Child of time!

SCHILLER.

BEFORE WASHINGTON's departure for the seat of government, to assume the duties of President of the United States, he went to Frederisburg to pay his parting respects to his aged Mother.

Mrs. Washington's health had now become so infirm as to impress her with the conviction that she beheld for the last time, the crowning blessing of her declining age.

Forgetting all else in the same mournful belief, the calm self-possession that no calamity had for years been able to shake, yielded to the claims of nature, and, overpowered by painful emotion, the mighty chieftain wept long, with bowed head, over the wasted form of his revered and much-loved parent.

Sustained, even in this trying hour, by her native strength of mind, the heroic Mother fervently invoked the blessing of Heaven upon her sorrowing Son, and solemnly bestowing her own, bade him pursue the path in which public duty summoned him to depart.

Mrs. Washington retained unimpaired possession of

her mental faculties to her latest moments, but during the last three years of her life, her physical powers were much diminished by the effects of the distressing malady with which she was long afflicted.

This painful disease* terminated her earthly existence in her eighty-third year. Her death occurred on the 25th of August, 1789. She had been forty-six

years a widow.

The last hours of this incomparable woman were accompanied by a tranquility and resignation most unlike the usual death-bed attendants of the world's scathed devotees.

An extract from a letter written by WASHINGTON to his sister soon after the decease of their mother, will best illustrate the methodical calmness with which she made a final adjustment of her temporal affairs. Our readers will also, thus become possessed of the minutest information in relation to the concluding scenes of Mrs. Washington's life, that persevering research has enabled us to discover.

"To MRS. BETTY LEWIS.

"New York, 13th September, 1789.

My Dear Sister :—

*

"Awful and affecting as the death of a parent is, there is consolation in knowing that Heaven has

Cancer in the breast.