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As we have hitherto said so little of Miss Aguilar,
for lack of materials, we applied to her mother for a sketch of her
life, and she has sent us preliminarily, the following written for the
Art-Union, by Mrs. Hall; and as everything is so interesting with
reference to one who will be more appreciated hereafter, we give it an
insertion in the Occident.
“Our readers have doubtless become familiar in
other pages, besides those of the Art-Union Journal, with the name of
this lady—a name not to be forgotten by any who value what is worthiest
and highest in women. Miss Aguilar’s last work—‘Home Influence’—deserves
a place in every house, whether Jew or Christian dwell therein. We
noticed her ‘Women of Israel’ when it appeared. We still consider it her
best work; it is so chivalrous in spirit, and so eloquent in style, that
the Hebrew ladies did honour to themselves when they presented this
noble-hearted daughter of their race with a testimony of esteem.
“She was one of whom they might well be proud; it
will be long before we shall forget the kindly, generous nature, the
tender sympathy, and perfect truthfulness of the dark-eyed, full-hearted
‘Jewess,’ fore<<203>>most in all good and righteous deeds.
In person, Grace Aguilar was tall and slight; her
manner gentle and persuasive; but when she spoke, she was remarkably
earnest; and when she became excited, her full dark eyes were dazzling
in their brightness. She was deeply read in the history of her people;
perfectly heroic in their defence, but without a single taint of
bitterness towards the ‘Christian.’ Her family found refuge in England
from the persecutions in Portugal, and to England she was fervently
attached.
“She manifested a talent for literary composition
at an early age, and devoted herself to it with a faithful desire to
discover and propagate truth. A little anecdote speaks volumes for the
generosity of her nature. At one time her circumstances obliged her to
require the ‘hire’ which literary labourers are frequently supposed to
be able to do without, as if the thinking faculties were the most
worthless, as regarded this world, of any of God’s good gifts; but some
addition being made to her income, she wrote to the editor of a
periodical to which she was a regular contributor, saying, that she knew
she did not now need remuneration as some others, and requesting that
what she had been accustomed to receive might be added to their
mite!
“Grace was by no means rich when she so acted; many
would call her poor; but she had always something to bestow, and the
manner of the gift doubled the charity. Her voice was a welcome
sound in many a poor dwelling; and she never inquired whether the
alms-asker was Jew or gentile.
“From her youth, she was considered fragile; but
nothing restrained the energy of her mind and actions. She would
continue to write; and she paid the penalty of over-exertion sooner than
most persons do. In the early part of this year (1847), it was thought
that perfect change would restore the tone of her enfeebled frame, and
accompanied by her tender and beloved mother, she resolved to visit a
brother in Germany, one who is winning his way to high musical honours.
“Her sensitive and educated mind was alive to
everything beautiful in nature and art. She wrote us her impression of
Lessing’s famous picture in the gallery of Frankfort, of ‘Huss before a
Private Council of Cardinals;’ and her description of one or two other
pictures was so enthusiastic, that we felt the bow was still too tightly
strung. Towards the conclusion of this letter, she says: ‘And yet I have
suffered so much from exhaustion, bodily and mental, since I have been
here, even more than before I left England, that I cannot realize
the pleasure which so many new objects of interest would have given me
in health; and, therefore, I have thought of the friends I have left
behind me much more often, and wished I could be again with them, far
more painfully <<204>>than had this trip been made in health.’ She was doomed
to see those friends no more. She became weaker and weaker; but still
the lamp of life burned clearly and brightly to the last. There was no
flickering before it was extinguished, and her intense sufferings seemed
to ripen her for eternity. Her last words were: ‘Though he rend me, yet
will I trust in Him!’ We mourn her as a dear friend; but what is the
sorrow of friends to that of her widowed mother, whom she had
accompanied since her birth, and who joyed in the treasure found amid
the remnant of her long-persecuted people—a treasure that was above all
price to the Hebrew people!
“Her name may appear forced into this Journal; for,
although the friend of many artists and a true lover of art, she was not
in the ordinary sense, an artist; but it is a high privilege to be
enabled to write even a brief record of a truly good woman, and to aid
in preserving a virtuous example from passing unnoted down the stream of
time.”
A. M. H.
November 1, 1847. |
