of the French language, and a generous benefactress to the French refugees. She particularly applied herself to the study of Hebrew, in which, by unwearied application and practice, she became a proficient. She wrote critical remarks upon the idioms and peculiarities of the Hebrew language, which were found among her papers after her decease. She likewise took delight in the study of anatomy and medicine, to which she was first led by her own indifferent health, and afterwards induced to cultivate by the desire of being useful to her neighbours. She frequently astonished professors in the science by her accurate method of stating difficult cases, the appropriate terms she made use of, and her scientific acquaintance with the subject. But her favourite pursuit was theology, in the subtleties of which she was critically conversant.

She was accustomed to regret the disadvantages of her sex, who, by the habits of their education, and the customs of society, were illiberally excluded from the means of acquiring knowledge. She contended, that mind was of no sex, and that man was no less an enemy to himself than to woman in confining her attention to frivolous attainShe spoke with pleasure and gratitude of her own obligations to her father and to her

ments.

preceptors, for having risen superior to those unworthy prejudices, and opened to her the sources of intellectual enjoyment.

Her beneficence and generosity were habitual and persevering, and often exerted on an extensive scale; she made long and expensive journeys in the promotion of her various plans, and in procuring, to carry them into effect, the assistance and agency of others. of others. I have acted the part of a beggar so long,' said she, that I am now almost one myself.' She recommended the appropriating of stated annual sums to benevolent purposes : 'People will not grudge,' she was accustomed to say, to give out of a purse that is no longer their own.' Those who had no children, she thought, ought to reserve a fourth part of their income for charitable uses. This, it must be confessed, is a subject of some difficulty, on which much might be alleged, and which must always depend on circumstances.

The temper of Mrs. Bury was contemplative and pious; from her early youth, she was accustomed to rise at four in the morning, and to spend several hours in her closet in meditation and devotional exercises. She conversed cheerfully with her friends, but regretted the time consumed in visits. She could not satisfy herself, she fre

quently said, with an intercourse in which she could neither do nor receive good, but would rather confine herself to her closet and her books. In her diary the following remark sometimes occurs: -"Entertained very kindly at such and such houses, but no good done to myself or others." At other times, she would complain, after leaving company, that though she had struck fire frcquently, it always fell upon wet tinder.' This good lady was probably too scrupulous and fastidious among the lesser duties of life, we ought not to overlook, that of contributing, by innocent compliances, to the happiness of others. The bow cannot always remain bent; social duties are not inconsistent with moral obligations.

Mrs. Bury left at her decease a large diary, which was abridged and published by her husband, from whose account the preceding particulars have been extracted. Among her miscellaneous papers were several discourses upon religious subjects; also critical observations in anatomy, medicine, mathematics, music, philosophy, and rhetoric.

An elegy upon her death was written by Dr. Watts, in which her various and admirable qualities are poetically enumerated.

Ballard's British Ladies-Biographium Fæmineum
Gibbon's Memoirs of Pious Women, Sc.

CALPHURNIA.

THE two following letters of Pliny, translated by the earl of Orrery, afford an interesting description of this lady, whom he had espoused, and an affecting picture of virtuous tenderness.

PLINY TO HISPULLA *.

"As you are an example of every virtue, and as you tenderly loved your excellent brother, whose daughter (to whom you supplied the place of both parents) you considered as your own, I doubt not but you will rejoice to learn, that she proves worthy of her father, worthy of you, and worthy of her grandfather. She has great talents; she is an admirable economist; and she loves me with an entire affection: a sure sign of her chastity. To these qualities she unites a taste for literature, inspired by her tenderness for me. She has collected my works, which she reads perpetually, and even learns to repeat. When I am to plead, how great is the anxiety she suffers! When I have succeeded, her joy is not less exquisite. She engages people to tell her what applauses I have gained, what acclamations I have

*The aunt of Calphurnia.

excited, and what judgment is pronounced on my orations. When I am to speak in public she places herself as near to me as possible, under the cover of her veil, and listens with delight to the praises bestowed upon me. She sings my verses, and, untaught, adapts them to the lute-love is her only instructor.

"Hence I expect with certainty that our happiness will be durable, and that it will daily increase. In me she is not captivated by youth or beauty, which are liable to accident and decay, but with the lustre. of my name. These are the sentiments which become a woman formed by your hand, and instructed by your precepts. Under your roof, she beheld only purity and virtue; it was your approbation that taught her to love me. Your filial affection for my mother led you in my. childhood to praise and model me, to presage that I should one day be the man my wife now fancies me to be. We, therefore, mutually return you thanks :-I, because you have given her to me ;-she, because you have given me to her. You have selected us as formed for each other. Farewel."

PLINY TO CALPHURNIA.

"My eager desire to see you is incredible. Love is its first spring; the next, that we have