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ter, be the first to remark that stuffs are very much
worn at Paris. If there be found fome irreparable
defects in any part of your equipage, which cannot
be concealed by all the arts of fitting cross-legged,
coaxing, or derning, fay, that neither you nor Samp-
fon Gideon were ever very fond of drefs. Or if you
be a philofopher, hint that Plato or Seneca are the
tailors you choose to employ; affure the company
that man ought to be content with a bare covering,
fince what now is fo much the pride of fome, was
formerly our fhame. Horace will give you a Latin
fentence fit for the occafion,

Toga defendere frigus,
Quamvis craffa, queat,

In short, however caught, do not give up, but afcribe to the frugality of your difpofition what others might be apt to attribute to the narrowness of your circumstances, and appear rather to be a mifer than a beggar. To be poor, and to feem poor, is a certain method never to rife. Pride in the great is hateful, in the wife it is ridiculous; beggarly pride is the only fort of vanity I can excufe.

THE HISTORY OF HYPASIA.

MAN, when fecluded from fociety, is not a more folitary being than the woman who leaves the duties of her own fex to invade the privileges of ours. She feems, in fuch circumftances, like one in banifhment; the appears like a neutral being between the fexes and though the may have the admiration of both, the finds true happiness from neither.

Of all the ladies of antiquity, I have read of none who was ever more juftly celebrated than the beauti

ful

ful Hypafia, the daughter of Leon the philofopher, This moft accomplished of women was born at Alexandria, in the reign of Theodofius the younger. Nature was never more lavifh of its gifts than it had been to her, endued as fhe was with the moft exalted understanding, and the happieft turn to science. Education completed what Nature had begun, and made her the prodigy not only of her age, but the glory

of her fex.

From her father fhe learned geometry and aftronomy; fhe collected from the converfation and fchools of the other philofophers, for which Alexandria was at that time famous, the principles of the reft of the sciences.

What cannot be conquered by natural penetration and a paffion for ftudy? The boundless knowledge, which at that period of time was required to form the character of a philofopher, no way difcouraged her; fhe delivered herfelf up to the study of Ariftotle and Plato, and foon not one in all Alexandria understood fo perfectly as the all the difficulties of these two philofophers.

But not their fyftems alone, but those of every other fect were quite familiar to her; and to this knowledge the added that of polite learning, and the art of oratory. All the learning which it was poffible for the human mind to contain, being joined to a moft enchanting eloquence, rendered this lady the wonder not only of the populace, who eafily admire, but of philofophers themselves, who are feldom fond of admiration.

The city of Alexandria was every day crowded with ftrangers, who came from all parts of Greece and Afia to fee and hear her. As for the charms of her perfon, they might not probably have been mentioned, did the not join to a beauty the most striking a virtue that might reprefs the most affuming;

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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 speak of her beauty, her knowledge, and her virtue, Nay, fo much harmony reigns in their accounts of this prodigy of perfection, that, in fpite 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 the was an heathen. Providence had taken fo much pains in forming her, that we are almost 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 so justly was poffeffed, was at laft, 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 refpect 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 just 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 higheft difpleasure.

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 demolished, 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 most industrious 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 streets, 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

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

The patriarch immédiately ordered the dead body, which had been exposed 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 moft 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 he 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 exercifed 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