CHAPTER I. PRELIMINARY. 66 Things learnt on earth we shall practise in Heaven." R. BROWNING. ONE of the most striking and hopeful characteristics of the present time is the earnest striving after perfection in every kind of work. It is the best proof of an advance upon the past, and the clearest signal of active progress in the future; for this stirring of life is not the aspiration of a few only, in certain special lines, but a general movement towards the fuller realisation of the ideal in every different variety of human effort. In no class of employments is this seeking for a higher standard of fulfilment more conspicuous than in those which are commonly undertaken by And this desire for a better realisation women. of the ideal in their own special work is the secret of the eagerness with which women now avail them B selves of all the means provided for intellectual culture or technical training. With the increase of intelligence they have become conscious of the imperfection and failure in much of their own work, even when the motive of it is pure and high; and without exchanging for ambition the simple purpose to do the duty which lies nearest, they seek eagerly for that development of intelligence, and the technical knowledge, by means of which these very duties may be more perfectly accomplished. There is, however, a greater result still to be sought for, and that is the development, through culture, of all the various faculties of the worker himself; so that he may himself more completely realise the ideal of humanity, and approach the higher standard of being. Good work, it is true, outlives the worker; but is there not assurance that the worker still outlives his best earthly work? In these ardent longings for individual perfection, in these glimpses of a life beyond life, in the hope grasped by faith, we cannot resist the conviction that a short life of rapid growth in this world is only a period united to an immortal progress. Thus that brief spring-time of blossoms, which is the only season granted to some lives on earth, becomes then no blighted, fruitless term of existence, an upward struggle, cut off from all achievement, and all is not lost if, just at the point where laborious days of preparation end— "Comes the blind Fury with the abhorred shears This conviction gives depths of importance and meaning to such a brief passage through this world as that of Ellen Watson; for, from this point of view, we may see in her brilliant intellectual career not a short period of fruitless toil, but the beginning of an immortal growth, attaining in its future stages a grandeur beyond our vision, while the few years of faithful, struggling endeavour to fit herself for work, scarcely even begun on earth, may have yet been the preparation for some farreaching service beyond all human accomplish ment. It is only in looking upon life in relation to a continuous existence that so incomplete a course as Ellen Watson's assumes sufficient importance to be interesting to others, for the calm current of days spent in thoughtful study, and of earnest search for truth, could scarcely be eventful. The very consecration of such a life to seeking perfection in character, and fitness for future work, is in itself a check upon premature action. The longing of her heart to do some good and lasting service for others was sustained by a hope placed in the future, and not by immediate unripe efforts. Such a life must be a picture rather than a story, and it is a picture drawn by unskilled hands, and in which material is wanting for artistic effect. But it may serve to preserve her memory in the minds of many who knew and loved her. And to others, who are, like her, seeking the higher development which culture can give, it may speak, with the sympathy of a sister-student, words of cheer as well as of caution in regard to some of the difficulties and dangers of the way. And it is not, perhaps, too much to hope that her struggles and her victory may possibly cast a gleam of light into the clouds or darkness through which so many are fighting their way, as she did, towards the sunrise of a brighter and diviner day. All that can be told of her will be given as much as possible in her own words, as they remain in letters to her friends and in fragments of un finished writings. It is, at best, rather an indication of what she aspired to and might have become, than of what she did. Rarely was any one more filled with that immortal energy which is the law of progress into higher developments, and to the last day of her life all her hope and desire were still in that which she yet sought to be and do. "Prognostics told Man's near approach; so in man's self arise Of a dim splendour, ever on before |