Page:Daughters of Genius.djvu/413

 MAKIA THERESA. 405 necessary. One thing is pretty certain ; if a country can be dismembered, it soon will be, unless it is the interest of some great power or powers to protect it. Mary Theresa died in 1780, aged 63, bequeathing to her son, Joseph, an empire far more united, prosperous, and powerful than the Austria which she inherited from her father. When the news of her death was brought to Frederick, the greatest of her enemies, he wrote to his friend, D'Alembert, the French author : " I have shed some very sincere tears at her death. She has done honor to her sex and to the throne. I have made war upon her, but I have never been her enemy." Of the female sovereigns of Europe in modern times, Maria Theresa was, probably, the ablest and the most virtuous. Her errors were those of her rank and blood ; her good actions were the result of her own noble heart and generous mind. Austria still styles her the Mother of her country, and remembers with fondness one of her sayings : " I reproach myself for the time I consume in sleep ; it is so much taken away from the service of my people."