and ultimately devoted a considerable sum to found the hospital which still bears her name. Beyond this, Madame Necker sought to exercise no power over her husband, or through his means. She loved him far too truly and too well to aim at an influence which might have degraded him in the eyes of the world. Necker was, however, proud of his noble-hearted wife, and never hesitated to confess how much he was indebted to her advice. When he retired from office, in 1781, and published his famous "Compte Rendu," he seized this opportunity of paying a high and heartfelt homage to the virtues of his wife. "Whilst retracing," he observes at the conclusion of his work, "a portion of the charitable tasks prescribed by your majesty, let me be permitted, sire, to allude, without naming her, to a person gifted with singular virtues, and who has materially assisted me in accomplishing the designs of your majesty. Although her name was never uttered to you, in all the vanities of high office, it is right, sire, that you should be aware that it is known and frequently invoked in the most obscure asylums of suffering humanity. It is no doubt most fortunate for a minister of finances to find, in the companion of his life, the assistance he needs for so many details of beneficence and charity, which might otherwise prove too much for his strength and attention. Carried away by the tumults of general affairs,—often obliged to sacrifice the feelings of the private man to the duties of the citizen, he may well esteem himself happy, when the complaints of poverty and misery can be confided to an enlightened person who shares the sentiment of his duties."
If Madame Necker has not left so remarkable a name as many women of her time; if her contemporaries, justly, perhaps, found her too cold and formal; yet she shines, at least in that dark age, a noble example of woman's virtues—devoted love, truth, and purity. She died in 1794, calm and resigned through the most acute sufferings; her piety sustained her. The literary works she left, are chiefly connected with her charities, or were called forth by the events around her. Among these works are the following:—"Hasty Interments," "Memorial on the Establishment of Hospitals," "Reflections on Divorce," and her "Miscellanies." Her only child was the celebrated Madame de Stael.
NELLI, SUOR PLAUTILLA,
A Florentine lady of noble extraction. A natural genius led her to copy the works of Bartolomeo di St. Marco, and she became, in consequence, an excellent painter. After taking the veil of St. Catharine, at Florence, she composed the "Descent from the Cross;" her pictures possess great merit. She died in 1588, aged sixty-five.
NEMOURS, MARIE D'ORLEANS, DUCHESS DE,
Daughter of the Duke de Longueville, was born in 1625. She wrote some very agreeable "Memoirs of the War of the Fronde," in which she delineates in a masterly manner the principal persons concerned—describes transactions with great fidelity, and adds many anecdotes. She married, when very young, the Duke de Nemours, and died in 1707. By her virtues, her prudence, and her sagacity in those trying and difficult times, her endowment and taste for polite literature, she reflected lustre on her rank and station. By
