couragement to a freedom of speech; she remembered every thing so exactly, observing at the same time the closest reservedness, yet with an open air and frankness *; she was so candid in all she said, and cautious in every promise she made; and, notwithstanding her own great capacity, she expressed such a distrust of her own thoughts, and was so entirely resigned to the king's judgment, and so constantly determined by it, that, when I laid all these things together, which I had large opportunities to observe, it gave a very pleasant prospect, to balance the melancholy view, that rose from the ill posture of our affairs, in all other respects. It gave us a very particular joy, when we saw, that the person, whose condition seemed to mark her out as the defender and perfecter of our reformation, was such, in all respects, in her public administration, as well as in her private deportment, that she seemed well fitted for accomplishing that work, for which we thought she was born: but we soon saw this hopeful view blasted, and our expectations disappointed, in the loss of her.

When, in her last illness, the archbishop was preparing to apprize her of her danger, with some address, not to surprize her too much with such tidings, she presently apprehended his drift, but showed no fear nor disorder upon it. She said, she thanked God she had always carried this in her mind, that nothing was to be left to the last hour; she had nothing then to do, but to look up to God,

I pensieri [stretti, et il visi sciolto.' See sir H. Wotton's letter to Milton, printed before the mask. Lord Onslow.

and submit to his will*; it went further, indeed, than submission; for she seemed to desire death, rather than life; and she continued, to the last moment of her life, in that calm and resigned state. She had formerly wrote her mind, in many particulars, to the king: and she gave orders to look carefully for a small scrutoir that she made use of, and to deliver it to the king: and, having dispatched that, she avoided the giving him or herself the tenderness which a final parting might have raised in them both. She was almost perpetually in prayer: the day before she died, she received the sacrament, all the bishops who were attending being admitted to receive it with her: we were, God knows, a sorrowful company; for we were losing her who was our chief hope and glory on earth. She followed the whole office, repeating it after the archbishop: she apprehended, not without some concern, that she should not be able to swallow the bread, yet it went down easily. When this was over, she composed herself solemnly to die; she slumbered sometimes, but said she was not refreshed by it; and said often, that nothing did her good but prayer: she tried once or twice to have said somewhat to the king, but was not able to go through with it. She ordered the archbishop to be reading to her such passages of scripture, as might fix her attention, and raise her devotion: several cordials were given, but all was ineffectual; she lay silent for some hours; and some words that came from her, showed her thoughts began to

* This much resembles the saying of Tillotson, lately cited, p. 307. note.

in the

break: in conclusion, she died on the 28th of December, about one in the morning, thirty-third year of her age, and in the her reign.*

sixth of

* Besides this character, the bishop drew up a separate Essay on the memory of the late queen;' and published it, in the year 1695. From that essay, the editor scruples not to extract a short passage, which may serve more fully to illustrate one of Mary's characteristic virtues : . .

'When her eyes were endangered by reading too much, she found out the amusement of work. And in all those hours that were not given to better employments, she wrought with her own hands; and that, sometimes, with so constant a diligence, as if she had been to earn her bread by it. It was a new sight, to see a queen work so many hours a day. She looked on idleness as the great corrupter of human nature: and believed, that, if the mind had no employment given it, it would create some of the worst sort to itself. And she thought, that any thing that might amuse and divert, without leaving a dreg and ill impression behind it, ought to fill up those vacant hours, that were not claimed by devotion or business. Her example soon wrought on, not only those that belonged to her, but the whole town, to follow it: so that it was become as much the fashion to work, as it had been formerly to be idle. In this, which seemed a nothing, and was turned by some to be the subject of raillery, a greater step was made, than perhaps every one was aware of, to the bettering of the age. While she diverted herself thus with work, she took care to give an entertainment to her own mind, as well as to those who were admitted to the honour of working with her: one was appointed to read to the rest; the choice [of authors or subjects] was suited to the time of the day, and to the employment; some book, or poem, that was lively, as well as instructing.

'Few of her sex, not to say of her rank, gave ever less time to dressing, or seemed less curious about it. Those parts of it, which required more patience, were not given up entirely to it. She read, often, all the while herself; and, generally, aloud, that those who served about her, might be the better for it. When she was indisposed, another was called to do it; and all was intermixed with such pleasant reflections of her own, that the gloss was often better liked than the text. An agreeable vivacity spread that innocent cheerfulness among all about her, that, whereas, in most courts, the hours of strict attendance are the heaviest parts of the day, they were, in her's, the most delightful of all others. BURNET. Essay on Q. Mary. 82-86.

CHARACTER

OF

A CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER ;

IN

A SERMON,

PREACHED JANUARY 7. 1691-2.,

AT THE FUNERAL OF THE HON. ROBERT BOYLE,

BY

GILBERT BURNET, D.D.

But the righteous live for evermore,
Their reward also is with JEHOVAH,

And the care of them is with the MOST HIGH:

Therefore they shall receive the kingdom of glory;

And the diadem of beauty, from the hand of JEHOVAH.

WISD. v. 15, 16.

ΜΑΘ. ν.

S. MAT. V. 8.

From whence the stars their thin appearance shed,
A place, beyond all place; where never ill,
Nor impure thought was ever harboured:
But saintly heroes are for ever said

To keep an EVERLASTING SABBATH'S REST.

GILES FLETCHER.