" And yet, moreover, her faculty of imagination was such that,
if she had written a history, her view of scenes and characters would
have been so vivid, and so powerfully expressed, and supported by such a
show of argument, that it would have dominated over the reader, whatever
might have been his previous opinions, or his cooler perceptions of its
truth. But she appeared egotistical and exacting compared to Charlotte,
who was always unselfish (this is M. Heger's testimony); and in the
anxiety of the elder to make her younger sister contented she allowed her
to exercise a kind of unconscious tyranny over her.
After consulting with his wife, M. Heger told them that he meant to
dispense with the old method of grounding in grammar, vocabulary, &c.,
and to proceed on a new plan--something similar to what he had
occasionally adopted with the elder among his French and Belgian pupils.
He proposed to read to them some of the master-pieces of the most
celebrated French authors (such as Casimir de la Vigne's poem on the
"Death of Joan of Arc," parts of Bossuet, the admirable translation of
the noble letter of St. Ignatius to the Roman Christians in the
"Bibliotheque Choisie des Peres de l'Eglise," &c.), and after having thus
impressed the complete effect of the whole, to analyse the parts with
them, pointing out in what such or such an author excelled, and where
were the blemishes.
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