Bereaved of her husband, sons, and brother-in-law, by the murderous savages, Mrs. Bledsoe was obliged to undertake not only the charge of her husband’s estate, but the care of the children, and their education and settlement in life.  These duties were discharged with unwavering energy and Christian patience....  The record of her worth, and of what she did and suffered, may win little attention from the careless many, who regard not the memory of our “pilgrim mothers;” but the recollection of her gentle virtues has not yet faded from the hearts of her descendants, and those to whom they tell the story of her life will acknowledge her the worthy companion of those noble men to whom belongs the praise of having originated a new colony, and built up a goodly state in the bosom of the forest.  Their patriotic labors, their struggles with the surrounding savages, their efforts in the maintenance of the community they had founded,—­sealed, as they finally were, with their own blood, and the blood of their sons and relatives,—­will never be forgotten while the apprehension of what is noble, generous, and good, survives in the hearts of their countrymen.

* * * * *

=_James Jackson Jarves, 1818-._= (Manual, p. 531.)

From “Art Hints.”

=_235._= THE ART IDEA.

The first duty of art, as we have already intimated, is to make our public buildings and places, as instructive and enjoyable as possible.  They should be pleasurable, full of attractive beauty and eloquent teachings.  Picturesque groupings of natural objects, architectural surprises, sermons from the sculptor’s chisel and the painter’s palette, the ravishment of the soul by its superior senses, the refinement of mind and body by the sympathetic power of beauty,—­these are a portion of the means which a due estimation of art, as an element of civilization, inspires the ruling will to provide freely for all.  If art be kept a rare and tabooed thing, a specialty for the rich and powerful, it excites in the vulgar mind, envy and hate; but proffer it freely to the public, and the public soon learns to delight in and protect it as its rightful inheritance.  It also tends to develop a brotherhood of thought and feeling.  During the civil strifes of Italy, art flourished and was respected.  Indeed, to some extent, it operated as a sort of peace society, and was held sacred when nothing else was.  Even rude soldiers, amid the perils and necessities of sieges, turned aside destruction from the walls that sheltered it.  The history of art is full of records of its power to soften and elevate the human heart.  As soon would man, were it possible, mar one of God’s sunsets, as cease to respect what genius has confided to his care, when once his mind has been awakened to its meaning.

The desire for art being awakened, museums to illustrate its technical and historical progress, and galleries to exhibit its master-works, become indispensable.  In the light of education, appropriations for such purposes are as much a duty of the government as for any other purpose connected with the true welfare of the people; for its responsibilities extend over the entire social system.