The Young Lady's Counsellor by Daniel Wise

SELF-RE LIAJNCE 119
khe /ewish nation, would have goi.s far toward
achieving a victory over the
French revolution, had
it been directed to that object ; and that the disqualification
of Marie Antoinette would have been as fatal
to Mordecai and the Jews, as it was to Louis and
the French monarchy. The reason of the failure of
the beautiful Austrian princess is patent to all. Her
youth had been misimproved. Hear the testimony
of the historian Alison. He says "
: She had little
education ; read hardly anything but novels and
romances ;
and had a fixed aversion, during her prosperous
days, to every species of business, or serious
employment."
Here is the secret of that vacillation and contradictory
action which ruled in the court of Louis, at
the outset of the revolution. His queen, who
attempted to steer the ship of state m that tempestuous
sea, was not competent to the task. She knew
this, and hence dared not rely upon her own judgment.
And her unfitness is to be traced to the abtseace
of those lofty qualities of mind, which are the