Page:Austen - Northanger Abbey. Persuasion, vol. I, 1818.djvu/36

 books at all. But from fifteen to seventeen she was in training for a heroine; she read all such works as heroines must read to supply their memories with those quotations which are so serviceable and so soothing in the vicissitudes of their eventful lives.

From Pope, she learnt to censure those who

From Gray, that Many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its fragrance on the desert air."

From Thompson, that "It is a delightful task To teach the young idea how to shoot."

And from Shakspeare she gained a great store of information—amongst the rest, that "Trifles light as air, Are, to the jealous, confirmation strong, As proofs of Holy Writ."

That