the death of her lamented husband, was left to provide for the education of their only child, a son, of nine or ten years of age. She resolved to conduct the instruction of her son, and receiving into her home a few boys, sons of her beloved and true friends, as companions of her child and pupils of her care, she fitted these youths for Harvard University. Such honourable exertions to perform faithfully the duty of father as well as mother to her son, demand a warmer tribute of praise than the highest genius, disconnected from usefulness, can ever claim for a Christian woman.
FONSECA, ELEONORA, MARCHIONESS OF,
A lady of great beauty and talents, was born at Naples in 1768. She cultivated botany, and other branches of natural history, and assisted Spallanzani in his philosophical investigations. Though possessed of great beauty, she devoted her youth to the cultivation of her mind. She studied with much care natural history and anatomy. As might be supposed, she was a warm partisan of the French revolution. When the king and royal family were obliged to leave Naples in 1799, the Marchioness of Fonseca narrowly escaped the fury of the Lazzaroni, who threatened the lives of those who were in the French interest. During the short-lived existence of the Parthenopeau republic, in 1799, she warmly espoused the popular cause, and edited a republican journal, called "The Neapolitan Monitor." For these expressions of her political principles the marchioness was executed, on the 20th. of July, by the restored government. Her private character was irreproachable.
FONTANA, LAVINIA,
Daughter of Prospero Fontana, a painter of Bologna, died in 1602, aged fifty. She was eminent as a painter, and was patronized by Pope Gregory the Thirteenth, a good portrait of whom by her hand is still extant.
FONTAINES, MARIE LOUISE CHARLOTTE COUNTESS DE,
Was the daughter of the Marquis de Giorg, Governor of Metz. Mademoiselle de Giorg married the Count de Fontaines, by whom she had a son and a daughter. She died in 1730.
Madame de Fontaines acquired considerable reputation by her novels, which are of the school of Madame de Fayette, to whom she is inferior in sensibility, and in the power of developing character; the French critics pronounce her diction to be purer; a merit which resulted from the epoch when she wrote; the language being at that time more settled than it was when "The Princess of Cleves" was composed. Voltaire, who was on terms of intimate friendship with Madame Fontaines, wrote some verses in her praise, in which he equals her style to that of Fenelon. This is a very exaggerated compliment. More just and more acceptable it would have been to confess that the plot of his fine tragedy, "Tancrède," is taken from one of her novels—"The Countess of Savoy." La Harpe, in his analysis of "Tancrède," indicates its source. In this play, the great beauty of the poetry and the very interesting and powerful evolvement of the characters evince so superior a genius to the mere formation of the story, that the poet might have yielded up to the lady what was due to to without
