could waken in a human heart a love whose thoughts were not of life or earthly bliss, but of the grave and the scaffold. Let the times, then, explain those natures, where so much evil and heroism are blended that man cannot mark the limits between both. Whatever judgment may be passed upon her, the character of Charlotte Corday was certainly not cast in an ordinary mould. It is a striking and noble trait, that to the last she did not repent: never was error more sincere. If she could have repented, she would never have become guilty.
Her deed created an extraordinary impression throughout France. On hearing of it, a beautiful royalist lady fell down on her knees and invoked "Saint Charlotte Corday." The republican Madame Roland calls her a heroine worthy of a better age. The poet André Chénier—who, before a year had elapsed, followed her on the scaffold—sang her heroism in a soul-stirring strain.
The author of "The Women in France," from whose interesting book we have selected this memoir, thus remarks on the character of this extraordinary woman: "To judge her absolutely lies not in the province of man. Beautiful, pure, gentle, and—a murderess!" It may be added, that, compared with the men of her time, Charlotte Corday was like a bright star shining through noxious and dark exhalations of selfishness and wickedness. She was not a Christian, for true Christianity had lost its power over the people of France; but she displayed, with the stem strength of a Roman soul, the highest principle of our unregenerate nature—patriotism.
CORINNA,
A poetess, to whom the Greeks gave the appellation of the Lyric Muse, was a native of Tanagra, Boeotia. She flourished in the fifth century B. C, and was a contemporary of Pindar, from whom she five times won the prize in poetical contests. Her fellow-citizens erected a tomb to her in the most frequented part of the city. Only a few fragments of her works arc extant. She did justice to the superiority of Pindar's genius, but advised him not to suffer his poetical ornaments to intrude so often, as they smothered the principal subject; comparing it to pouring a vase of flowers all at once upon the ground, when their beauty and excellence could only be observed in proportion to their rarity and situation. Her glory seems to have been established by the public memorial of her picture, exhibited in her native city, and adorned with a symbol of her victory. Pausanius, who saw it, supposes her to have been one of the most beautiful women of her age; and observes that her personal charms probably rendered her judges partial.
CORINNA, or CRINNA,
Of the Isle of Telos, lived about B. C. 610. She wrote a fine poem in the Doric language, consisting of three hundred verses. Her style is said to have resembled that of Homer. She died at the age of nineteen.
CORNANO CATERINA,
Queen of Cyprus. At the court of James the Fourth, King of Cyprus, resided a Venetian gentleman, exiled for some youthful indiscretions. He found especial favour with his adopted monarch.
