membred by the Numbers the relieved even in many parts of the world. She was generous

and

This ingenious lady was born at Ilchester in Somerfetfhire, September 11, 1674.

She was marryed in the year 1710, in the 36th year of her age, to Mr. Rowe *.

She dyed February 20, 1736-7, aged fixty-three, at Frome, in Somersetshire, and lies buryed at the meeting-place of that town, under the stone which covered the body of her father Mr. Walter Singer. Her diftemper was an apoplexy, which seized her at her prayers, at ten o'clock on Saturday night, and the breathed till three the next morning, when the gave one groan, and expired.

The ingenious, who did not know Mrs. Rowe, admired her for her writings; and her acquaintance loved and esteemed her for the many amiable qualities of her heart.

Her works are-1. Friendship in death, in twenty letters from the Dead to the Living.-2. Letters Moral and Entertaining-3. The Hiftory of Jofeph, a poem in ten books.-4. Mifcellaneous Works, two volumes in 8vo.—and, 5. Devout Exercises of the heart, published by Dr. Watts, and by him dedicated to the countefs of Hartford, the late moft excellent dutchefs of Somerfet, who dyed at Percy-lodge, near Hounflow; Sunday the 7th of July, 1754. with a preface to the reader, in which the doctor, as before obferved, magnifys the paffionate devotion of Mrs. Rowe, and must have been. greatly

*Thomas Rowe, author of the eight fupplemental lives to Plutarch, which were published by Mr. Chandler, and remain a glorious monument of Mr. Rowe's love of liberty and public good.He died of a confumption at Hampstead, in the 29th year of his age, May 13, 1715, twenty-feven years before Mrs. Rowe, and ties in the cemetery in Bunhill-Fields.

and free to the laboring, and bountifully rewarded the induftrious. She purchased medicines

greatly charmed with the elevations of this religionist, when he tells the lady to whom he offers the Exercises, that in them she will find fuch affiftances, that she may commence the joy of angels, and of blessed spirits before hand.

Dr. Watts however, as before obferved, was a great man in several refpects, notwithstanding his inclination to tranfcendings and other holy extravagances. If we cannot applaud him in this article, or for what he fays in contempt of Space; or for what he writes upon the trinity; yet he was on other fubjects a valuable writer, and fuch notions as are apparently wrong, are fufficiently outballanced by many good things which he has written, and by the good spirit with which they are written.

Befide this, he approved himself as a minifter of Christ. He was a faithful fteward of the manifold grace of God, and continued a most pious and useful paftor till he had finished his course. It is this that makes his memory precious, and sheds a brighter luftre on his name, than can be derived from the fineft genius, and the brightest literary attainments.

As to Mrs. Rowe's works, her miscellaneous volumes are valuable books, and especially the fecond volume, which contains her letters to the dutchefs of Somerset. They are lively and rational, and have many fine fentiments.

Her poem called Jofeph is likewife very pretty, and would have had great merit, if fhe had beftowed on it that time and labour which the fubject deferves: But the first eight books were written in her younger years, concluding with the marriage of her heroe: the two laft were finished a little before her death, at the request of her great friend, and coft her but three or four days.

Whether

dicines for the fick, and payed the physician to attend them. She was ever ready to

draw

Whether Mrs. Rowe ever faw Fracaftor's Jofeph, I know not, but it appears from the unfinished poem that gentleman left, that the hiftory of Jofeph might be wrought into a noble work.

Vos dicite quantum

Ille tulit Phariis tandem dum Victor in Oris
Imperium gereret magnum, populumqne beatum
Conderet, unde falus hominum, fpes unde futura
Vitæ erat, et claufi referandum limen Olympi.

The prayer of Joseph in the pit is vastly fine.

Oculos in cœlum ad fidera tollens
Sic fatur: Rex terrarum, Rex ætheris alti
Omnipotens, patrum Deus et tutela meorum,
Refpice nos, et noftra tuo fub numine fi fpes
Eft omnis, fuper his primum miferere parentis.
De me autem quidquid ftatuet tua recta voluntas,
Seu lætum, feu trifte pares, nihil ipfe recufo.
Unum oro, fi parca mihi vidiffe negabit
His oculis felicem illam, femperque beatam,
Optatamque diem, qua tandem ex æthere fummo
Defcendet tua progenies, da cernere faltem

In fpeculo, atque umbra monftra mihi, speque fideque
Nofcere da, puroque ejus de fonte lavari.

Mrs. Rowe in her poem makes no prayer for the illustrious fufferer, but only tells us, that after he was let down in the pit, the night came on, and he prayed—

The night prevails, and draws her fable train,
With filent pace, along th' etherial plain.
By fits the dancing ftars exert their beams,
The filver crefcent glimmers on the streams;

The

The fluggish waters with a drowsy roar,
And ling'ring motion, roll along the fhore ;
Their murmur anfwers to the ruftling breeze,
That faintly whifpers thro' the nodding trees;
The peaceful echoes, undifturb'd with found,
Lay flumb'ring in the cavern'd hills around;
Frenzy and faction, love and envy flept,
A ftill folemnity all nature kept;
Devotion only wak'd, and to the skies
Directs the pris'ners pious vows and eyes:
To God's high throne a wing'd petition flew,
And from the fkies commiffion'd Gabriel drew;
One of the feven, who by appointed turns
Before the throne ambrofial incenfe burns.

Thefe lines are beautiful; but their merit would have rifen to a higher degree, if the author had added after the 14th line, fuch a prayer as Fracaftor puts in the mouth of Jofeph, and then given him a vifion of the people of God, from their establishment in Egypt under his government, to the triumph of Jefus in his refurrection from the dead, and the restoration of the Jews to glory and greatness during the Milennium.

N. B. Jerom Fracaftor was a famous physician of the 16th century. He left feveral learned works, but is more remarkable in hiftory, on account of a piece of fingular fervice he did Paul the third, his patron. This pope wanted to carry fome points which he thought he could not fo well effect, while the Fathers fat at Trent, within the dominion of the emperor Charles the Vth, and therefore he directs Fracaftorius, phyfician to the council, to tell the Fathers a ftory, that would work on their weakness, and get them to Bologna, a town belonging to the pope. To this purpofe Fracaftor affures the doctors that the plague was arrived in Trent, and they had nothing for their lives, but to fly away immediately, and fit down in Paul's town. They fled. Seflions 9 and 10 were held at Bologna, April and June 1547; and Paul Farnefe did the work.

Ꮓ

draw

draw out the foul to the hungry, and delighted in fatisfying the afflicted. Eumetadotous einai, 1 Tim. vi. 18. She was liberal in diftributions (a). Nor did the charity of

(a) Our tranflators have not rendered the Greek words, souladores siva with fufficient exactnefs in saying, ready to diftribute; for literally it means good at diftributing, or fuch as diftribute well: and good or well, in compofition with other words in the Greek tongue, is ufed to fignify excefs, or a great degree of a thing. This caufed the Ethiopic tranflators, who made their verfion about the apoftles time, to render the Greek word by one which fignifys liberality; and for these reafons the original fhould have been tranflated, that they be liberal in their diftributions, inftead of, ready to diftribute. It is not enough then for those who are rich to do good by the common measures of liberality, that is to give readily fuch or fuch a fum, more than was commonly given by people of equal fortune, without ever confidering whether the charity bears a proportion to the ability to relieve: but the gift ought to bear a proportion to the ability, to act up to the apoftle's rule. The rich fhould have a strict regard to proportion, and a proper measure, inftead of the common measure of charity. The queftion fhould not be, is 50 or 100l. a great deal to give away in a year; but, if 50 or 100l. bears a true proportion to their great incomes?

I fet this particular down for reafons I need not mention, and add, by way of obfervation, that this is not only the great apoftle's notion of real charity, but that the Lord himself lays fo great a ftrefs upon giving largely to fupply the wants of the poor, that he feems to place all the value and excellency of this kind of charity in this alone, that is, in this manner of giving: For all did caft in of their abundance, yet the widow's meaner gift made her virtue much greater; because the liberality in the farthing, was larger than a rich man's, if he gave a pound, and it was but a small part of his fubftance.