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from the capitol to all the nobles, that they should peaceably retire to their estates: they obeyed; and their departure secured the tranquility of the free and obedient citizens of Rome.

DEATH OF ELIZABETH.-HUME.

The earl of Essex, after his return from the fortunate expedition against Cadiz, observing the increase of the queen's fond attachment towards him, took occasion to regret, that the necessity of her service required him often to be absent from her person, and exposed him to all those ill offices which his enemies, more assiduous in their attendance, could employ against him. She was moved with this tender jealousy and making him the present of a ring, desired him to keep that pledge of her affection, and assured him, that into whatever disgrace he should fall, whatever prejudices she might be induced to entertain against him, yet if he sent her that ring, she would immediately, upon sight of it, recall her former tenderness; would afford him a patient hearing, and would lend a favorable ear to his apology. Essex, notwithstanding all his misfortunes, reserved this precious gift to the last extremity; but, after his trial and condemnation, he resolved to try the experiment, and he committed the ring to the countess of Nottingham, whom he desired to deliver it to the queen. The countess was prevailed on by her husband, the mortal enemy of Essex, not to execute the commission; and Elizabeth, who still expected that her favorite would make this last appeal to her tenderness, and who ascribed the neglect of it to his invincible obstinacy, was, after much delay, and many internal combats, pushed, by resentment and policy, to sign the warrant for his execution. The countess of Nottingham, falling into sickness, and affected with the near approach of death, was seized with remorse for her conduct; and having obtained a visit from the queen, she craved her pardon, and revealed to her the fatal secret. queen, astonished with this incident, burst into a furious passion: she shook the dying countess in her bed; and crying to her, That God might pardon her, but she never could,—she broke from her, and thenceforth resigned herself over to the deepest and most incurable melancholy. She rejected all consolation she even refused food and sustenance: and, throwing herself on the floor, she remained sullen and immovable, feed

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ing her thoughts on her afflictions, and declaring life and existence an insufferable burden to her. Few words she uttered; and they were all expressive of some inward grief, which she cared not to reveal: but sighs and groans were the chief vent which she gave to her despondency, and which, though they discovered her sorrows, were never able to ease or assuage them. Ten days and nights she lay upon the carpet, leaning on cushions, which her maids brought her; and her physicians could not persuade her to allow herself to be put to bed, much less to make trial of any remedies which they prescribed to her. Her anxious mind, at last, had so long preyed upon her frail body, that her end was visibly approaching; and the council, being assembled, sent the keeper, admiral, and secretary, to know her will with regard to her successor. She answered with a faint voice, that she had held a regal scepter, she desired no other than a royal successor. Cecil requesting her to explain herself more particularly, she subjoined, that she would have a king to succeed her and who should that be, but her nearest kinsman, the king of Scots! Being then advised, by the archbishop of Canterbury, to fix her thoughts upon God, she replied, that she did so, nor did her mind, in the least, wander from Him. Her voice, soon after, left her; her senses failed; she fell into a lethargic slumber, which continued some hours; and she expired gently, without farther struggle or convulsion, in the seventieth year of her age, and forty-fifth of her reign.

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So dark a cloud overcast the evening of that day, which had shone out with a mighty luster in the eyes of all Europe. There are few great personages in history, who have been more exposed to the calumny of enemies, and the adulation of friends, than queen Elizabeth; and yet there scarcely is any whose reputation has been more certainly determined by the unanimous consent of posterity. The unusual length of her administration, and the strong features of her character, were able to overcome all prejudices; and obliging her detractors abate much of their invectives, and her admirers, somewhat of their panegyrics, have, at last, in spite of political factions, and, what is more, of religious animosities, produced a uniform judgment with regard to her conduct. Her vigor, her constancy, her magnanimity, her penetration, vigilance, address, are allowed to merit the highest praises, and appear not to have been surpassed by any person that ever filled the throne: a conduct less rigorous, less imperious, more sincere, more in

dulgent to her people, would have been requisite to form a perfect character. By the force of her mind, she controlled all her more active and stronger qualities, and prevented them from running into excess: her heroism was exempt from temerity, her frugality from avarice, her friendship from partiality, her active temper from turbulency and a vain ambition; she guarded not herself with equal care or equal success, from lesser infirmities; the rivalship of beauty, the desire of admiration, the jealousy of love, and the sallies of anger.

Her singular talents for government were founded equally on her temper and on her capacity. Endowed with a great command over herself, she soon obtained an uncontrolled ascendant over her people; and while she merited all their esteem by her real virtues, she also engaged their affections by her pretended ones. Few sovereigns of England succeeded to the throne in more difficult circumstances; and none ever conducted the government with such uniform success and felicity. Though unacquainted with the practice of toleration, the true secret for managing religious factions, she preserved her people, by her superior prudence, from those confusions in which theological controversy had involved all the neighboring nations and though her enemies were the most powerful princes of Europe, the most active, the most enterprising, the least scrupulous, she was able, by her vigor, to make deep impressions on their states: her own greatness, meanwhile, remained untouched and unimpaired.

The wise ministers and brave warriors who flourished under her reign, share the praise of her success; but, instead of lessening the applause due to her, they make great addition to it. They owed, all of them, their advancement to her choice; they were supported by her constancy; and, with all their abilities, they were never able to acquire any undue ascendant over her. In her family, in her court, in her kingdom, she remained equally mistress: the force of the tender passions was great over her, but the force of her mind was still superior: and the combat which her victory visibly cost her, serves only to display the firmness of her resolution, and the loftiness of her ambitious sentiments.

The fame of this princess, though it has surmounted the prejudices both of faction and bigotry, yet lies still exposed to another prejudice, which is more durable, because more natural, and which, according to the different views in which we survey her, is capable either of exalting beyond measure, or diminish

ing the luster of her character. This prejudice is founded on the consideration of her sex. When we contemplate her as a woman, we are apt to be struck with the highest admiration of her great qualities and extensive capacity; but we are also apt to require some more softness of disposition, some greater lenity of temper, some of those amiable weaknesses, by which her sex is distinguished. But the true method of estimating her merit is, to lay aside all these considerations, and consider her merely as a rational being, placed in authority, and intrusted with the government of mankind. We may find it difficult to reconcile our fancy to her as a wife, or a mistress; but her qualities as a sovereign, though with some considerable exceptions, are the object of undisputed applause and approbation.

ALEXANDER'S VISIT TO THE TEMPLE OF JUPITER.— GOLDSMITH.

This temple was situated at a distance of twelve days journey from Memphis, in the midst of the sandy deserts of Lybia. Alexander having read in Homer and other fabulous authors of antiquity, that most of the heroes were represented as the sons of some deity, was willing himself to pass for a hero, and knew that he could bribe the priests to compliment him, as of celestial origin. Setting out therefore along the river Memphis, and after having passed Canopus opposite the island of Pharos, he there laid the foundation of the city of Alexandria, which in a little time became one of the most flourishing towns for commerce in the world. From thence he had a journey of three hundred and forty miles to the temple of Jupiter; the way leading through inhospitable deserts and plains of sand. The soldiers were patient enough for the two first days' march, before they arrived amidst the dreadful solitudes; but as soon as they found themselves in vast plains, covered with sands of a prodigious depth, they were greatly terrified. Surrounded as with a sea, they gazed round as far as their sight could extend, to discover, if possible, some place that was inhabited; but all in vain, for they could not perceive so much as a single tree, nor the least footsteps of any land that had been cultivated. To increase their calamity, the water that they had brought in goat-skins, upon camels, now failed, and there was not so much as a single drop in all that sandy desert. They were, however,

greatly refreshed by the accidental falling of a shower, which served to encourage them in their progress, till they came to the temple of the deity. Nothing can be more fanciful than the description the historians have given us of this gloomy retreat; it is represented as a small spot of fertile ground, in the midst of vast solitudes of sand; it is covered with the thickest trees, that exclude the rays of the sun; and watered with several springs, which preserved it in perpetual verdure; near the grove where the temple stood, was the Fountain of the Sun, which at day-break was lukewarm, at noon cold, then towards evening insensibly grew warmer, and was boiling hot at midnight. The god worshipped in this place, had his statue made of emeralds and other precious stones; and from the head to the navel resembled a ram. No sooner had Alexander appeared before the altar, than the high priest declared him to be the son of Jupiter; the conqueror, quite intoxicated with adulation, asked, "Whether he should have success in his expedition;" the priest answered, "That he should be monarch of the world;" the conqueror inquired, "If his father's murderers were punished;" the priest replied, "That his father Jupiter was immortal, but that the murderers of Philip had been all extirpated."

MEMOIRS.

SEMIRAMIS.-MRS. JAMESON.

Semiramis, queen of Assyria, is the first female sovereign upon record who ever held undivided empire. All the accounts which have come down to us concerning this celebrated queen, are mixed up with so much exaggeration, absurdity, and mythological fiction, that she may be considered partly a fabulous. and partly an historical personage. As beheld through the long lapse of ages, and in the dim distance of primeval time, with all her gorgeous and Babylonish associations around her, Semiramis appears to our fancy rather as a colossal emblem of female sovereignty overshadowing the East, than as a real and distinct individual; yet, that such a woman did once exist is more than probable, and her name has been repeated from

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