THE DEVOTED DAUGHTER. one of the most profound scholars of Germany, having visited England, formed a friendship with Sir Thomas and his daughters ; and this intimacy was of essential service in the studies of the young girls. He viewed with admiration the harmony and love reigning among them. " Their especial care is piety and virtue," he says, " there is no wrangling, or intemperate words heard, none is idle ; which household discipline that worthy gentleman (Sir Thomas More) doth not govern by proud words, but with all kindness and courtly benevolence; everybody performeth their due, yet is there always alacrity ; neither is sober mirth anything wanting." His wire, Jane, having died some time after the birth of her son, Sir Thomas More was unwilling to leave his daughters without some kind of motherly protection ; and he accordingly, more for their sake than from any care for himself, selected Mrs. Alice Middleton, " a widow of good years, and of no good favour or complexion," who was seven years his senior. In one respect this choice was unfortunate; for she was a silly worldly-minded woman. Sir Thomas himself used to say that " she was penny wise and pound foolish, saving a candle's end, and spoiling a velvet gown ;" while she would rate him angrily for not striving to attain to greater grandeur and social distinction. As he considered that " to aim at honour in this world is to set a coat of arms over a prison-gate," so he preferred home peace and tranquillity to the whirl and struggle of an
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