and though in the whole capital, famed for charms, there was not one who could equal her in beauty; though in a city, the refort of all the learning then exifting in the world, there was not one who could equal her in knowledge; yet, with fuch accomplishments Hypafia was the most modeft of her fex. Her repuation for virtue was not lefs than her virtues; and though in a city divided between two factions, though vifited by the wits and the philofophers of the age, calumny never dared to fufpect her morals, or attempt her character. Both the Chriftians and the Heathens who have tranfmitted her hiftory and her misfortunes, have but one voice, when they fpeak of her beauty, her knowledge, and her virtue. Nay, fo much harmony reigns in their accounts of this prodigy of perfection, that, in spite of the oppofition of their faith, we fhould never have been able to judge of what religion was Hypafia, were we not informed, from other circumftances, that she was an heathen. Providence had taken fo much pains in forming her, that we are almoft induced to complain of its not having endeavoured to make her a Chriftian; but from this complaint we are deterred by a thousand contrary obfervations, which lead us to reverence its infcrutable myfteries.

This great reputation, of which the fo juftly was poffeffed, was at last, however, the occafion of her ruin.

The perfon, who then poffeffed the patriarchate of Alexandria, was equally remarkable for his violence, cruelty, and pride. Conducted by an ill-grounded zeal for the Chriftian religion, or perhaps defirous of augmenting his authority in the city, he had long meditated the banishment of the Jews. A difference arifing between them and the Chriftians with respect to fome public games, feemed to him a proper juncture for putting his ambitious defigns into execution,

He

He found no difficulty in exciting the people, naturally difpofed to revolt. The prefect, who at that time commanded the city, interpofed on this occafion, and thought it juft to put one of the chief creatures of the patriarch to the torture, in order to difcover the first promoter of the confpiracy. The patriarch enraged at the injuftice he thought offered to his character and dignity, and piqued at the protection which was offered to the Jews, fent for the chiefs of the fynagogue, and enjoined them to renounce their defigns, upon pain of incurring his highest displeasure.

The Jews, far from fearing his menaces, excited new tumults, in which feveral citizens had the misfortune to fall. The patriarch could no longer contain; at the head of a numerous body of Chriftians, he flew to the fynagogues, which he demolifhed, and drove the Jews from a city, of which they had been poffeffed fince the times of Alexander the Great. It may be eafily imagined that the prefect could not behold, without pain, his jurifdiction thus infulted, and the city deprived of a number of its moft induftrious inhabitants.

The affair was therefore brought before the emperor. The patriarch complained of the exceffes of the Jews, and the prefect of the outrages of the patriarch. At this very juncture, five hundred monks of mount Nitria, imagining the life of their chief to be in danger, and that their religion was threatened in his fall, flew into the city with ungovernable rage, attacked the prefect in the ftreets, and, not content with loading him with reproaches, wounded him in feveral places.

The citizens had by this time notice of the fury of the monks; they, therefore, affembled in a body, put the monks to flight, feized on him who had been found throwing a ftone, and delivered him to

the

the prefect, who caufed him to be put to death without further delay.

The patriarch immediately ordered the dead body, which had been expofed to view, to be taken down, procured for it all the pomp and rites of burial, and went even fo far as himself to pronounce the funeral oration, in which he claffed a feditious monk among the martyrs. This conduct was by no merns generally approved of; the most moderate even among the Chriftians perceived and blamed his indifcretion; but he was now too far advanced to retire. He had made feveral overtures towards a reconciliation with the prefect, which not fucceeding, he bore all those an implacable hatred whom he imagined to have any hand in traverfing his defigns; but Hypafia was particularly deftined to ruin. She could not find pardon, as fhe was known to have a moft refined friendfhip for the prefect; wherefore the populace were incited against her. Peter, a reader of the principal church, one of thofe vile flaves by which men in power are too frequently attended, wretches ever ready to commit any crime which they hope may render them agreeable to their employer; this fellow, I fay, attended by a crowd of villains, waited for Hypafia, as fhe was returning from a vifit, at her own door, feized her as fhe was going in, and dragged her to one of the churches called Cefarea, where, ftripping her in a moft inhuman manner, they exercised the most inhuman cruelties upon her, cut her into pieces, and burnt her remains to ashes. Such was the end of Hypafia, the glory of her own fex, and the aftonishment of ours.

ON

1

ON JUSTICE AND GENEROSITY.

LYSIPPUS is a man whofe greatnefs of foul the whole world admires. His generofity is fuch, that it prevents a demand, and faves the receiver the trouble and the confufion of a request. His liberality alfo does not oblige more by its greatnefs, than by his inimitable grace in giving. Sometimes he even distributes his bounties to strangers, and has been known to do good offices to thofe who profeffed themselves his enemies. All the world are unanimous in the praise of his generofity; there is only one fort of people who complain of his conduct. Lyfippus does not pay his debts.

It is no difficult matter to account for a conduct

fo feemingly incompatible with itself. There is greatness in being generous, and there is only fimple juftice in fatisfying his creditors. Generofity is the part of a foul raised above the vulgar. There is in it fomething of what we admire in heroes, and praise with a degree of rapture. Juftice, on the contrary, is a mere mechanic virtue, fit only for tradefmen, and what is practifed by every broker in Change Alley.

In paying his debts a man barely does his duty, and it is an action attended with no fort of glory. Should Lyfippus fatisfy his creditors, who would be at the pains of telling it to the world? Generofity is a virtue of a very different complexion. It is raifed above duty, and from its elevation attracts the attention, and the praises of us little mortals below.

In this manner do men generally reafon upon juftice and generofity. The firft is despised, though a virtue effential to the good of fociety; and the other attracts our esteem, which too frequently proceeds from an impetuofity of temper, rather directed by vanity than reafon. Lyfippus is told that his banker

alks

afks a debt of forty pounds, and that a diftreffed acquaintance petitions for the fame fum. He gives it without hefitating to the latter; for he demands as a favour what the former requires as a debt.

Mankind in general are not fufficiently acquainted with the import of the word Juftice: it is commonly believed to confift only in a performance of thofe duties to which the laws of fociety can oblige us. This I allow is fometimes the import of the word, and in this fenfe juftice is diftinguished from equity; but there is a juftice ftill more extenfive, and which can be fhewn to embrace all the virtues united.

Juftice may be defined to be that virtue which impels us to give to every perfon what is his due. In this extended fenfe of the word, it comprehends the practice of every virtue which reafon prefcribes, or fociety fhould expect. Our duty to our maker, to each other, and to ourselves, are fully answered, if we give them what we owe them. Thus juftice, properly speaking, is the only virtue, and all the reft have their origin in it.

The qualities of candour, fortitude, charity, and generofity, for inftance, are not, in their own nature, virtues; and, if ever they deferve the title, it is owing only to juftice, which impels and directs them. Without fuch a moderator candour might become indifcretion, fortitude obftinacy, charity imprudence, and generofity mistaken profufion.

A difinterested action, if it be not conducted by juftice, is at beft indifferent in its nature, and not unfrequently even turns to vice. The expences of fociety, of prefents, of entertainments, and the other helps to chearfulness, are actions merely indifferent, when not repugnant to a better method of difpofing of our fuperfluities, but they become vicious when they obftruct or exhaust our abilities from a more virtuous difpofition of our circumstances.

True