she believed at best, was but an art of losing time, and forgetting to think; but when she reflected on the fatal consequences that attend a fond attachment to cards and dice, she had even a horror of them. Her taste was too just to relish those insipid trifles called novels and romances, and which are not unfrequently worse than insipid, being filled with indecent images, which pollute the imagination, and shock every chaste mind.

Mrs. Rowe was exemplary for every relative duty. Filial piety was a remarkable part of her character. She loved the best of fathers as she ought, and repaid his uncommon care and tenderness by all just returns of duty and affection. She has often been heard to say, "That she could die, rather than do any thing to displease him."

As a wife, her esteem and affection appeared in all her conduct to Mr. Rowe, and by the most gentle and obliging manners, and the exercise of every social virtue, she confirmed the empire she had gained over his heart. She made it her duty to soften the anxieties, and heighten all the satisfactions of his life. Her capacity for superior things did not tempt her to neglect the less honourable cares which the laws of custom and decency impose on the female sex, in the connubial state, and much less was she led by a sense of her own merit, to assume any thing to herself inconsistent with that duty and submission which the precepts of Christian piety so expressly enjoin. As a mistress, she was gentle and kind, treating her servants with great condescension and goodness, and almost with the affability of a friend and equal.

She was charitable and kind to the poor and distressed. She not only avoided all superfluous expenses in dress and luxury, but through an excess of benevolence, if there can be any excess in such a god-like disposition, to enlarge her abilities of doing good to her fellow creatures, she denied herself what might, in some sense, be called the necessaries of life.

This excellent woman practised prayer three times a day, as appears by this resolution taken from her manuscript. "At morning, at noon, and at night, I will praise thee, and pay my homage to the Supreme and Independent Being."

She had a high veneration and love for the Lord's day, which, abstaining from worldly affairs and pleasures, she wholly consecrated to the service of religion. No slight indisposition, nor severity of weather, prevented her constant attendance on public worship, at which her attention and reverent behaviour showed the utmost composure and elevation of soul. But her regard to the public worship of God, will best appear by the following passage, extracted from a volume of her devotions.

"I solemnly," says she, "set apart one day in the week, if possible Sunday, for my retired devotions, to prepare myself for the noble employment of public worship; and then let all the powers of my soul be exercised in love and humble adoration. Let me make more sensible approaches to the propitious being whom unseen I love, and let him fill me with the ineffable delights his presence affords, and make me joyful in the house of prayer. Let me be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of his house, and drink of the rivers of his pleasure." She never neglected any opportunity of

partaking of the holy communion, for which she had the highest affection and reverence; and the same volume affords the following passage of the devout and virtuous resolutions she made at such sacred seasons.

"With every sacrament let me remember my strength, and with the bread of life receive immortal vigour. Let me remember thy vows, O God! and, at my return to the world, let me commit my ways to thee. Let me be absolutely resigned to thy providence, nor once distrust thy goodness and fidelity. Let me be careful for nothing, but with prayer and supplication, make my wants known to thee. Let the most awful sense of thy presence dwell on my heart, and always keep me in a serious disposition. Let me be merciful and just in my actions, calm and regular in my thoughts; and O do thou set a watch on my mouth, and keep the door of my lips! let me speak evil of no man; let me advance the reputation of the virtuous, and never be silent in the praise of merit. Let my tongue speak the language of my heart, and be guided by exact truth and perfect sincerity. Let me open my hands wide to the wants of the poor, in full confidence that my heavenly father will supply mine, and that the high possessor of heaven and earth, will not fail to restore, in the hour of my distress, what I have parted with for his sake. O let thy grace be sufficient for me, and thy strength be manifest in weakness! Be present with me in the hour of temptation, and confirm the pious resolutions thou hast enabled me to perform."

Mrs. Rowe appeared to be peculiarly formed for the practice of sublime and ardent piety. It was the supreme pleasure of her life. She had an inexpressible

love and veneration for the Holy Scriptures, and was assiduous in reading them, particularly the New Testament, the psalms, and those parts of the prophetical writings which relate to our blessed Saviour. For some time before her death, she scarce read any thing besides these sacred books, and practical treatises on religious subjects. She was also used to assist her improvement in holiness, and the Christian life, by frequent meditations on the blessedness of a future state, the perfections of God, particularly in his infinite goodness and mercy in the redemption of the world by Jesus Christ, and on other important articles of religion, which appeared best suited to promote devout and holy dispositions. Besides these her usual exercises of piety, she observed stated seasons of abstinence and extraordinary devotion.

Mrs. Rowe's writings give a faithful picture of her soul. Her profound humility, and supreme affection to God, her faith in his promises, and dependence on his providence, her zeal for his glory, and love to the holiness of his laws, appear in the strongest light in her works. But as it would too much swell this account, by transcribing her sentiments on these heads, we refer the reader to her works, particularly to the "Devout Exercises of her Heart."

151

RUSSELL.

RACHEL RUSSELL. This incomparable lady was born in England, about the year 1636.

It is well known, and is an event which can never be forgotten, that the husband of this lady, William lord Russell, was beheaded July 21, 1683.

By lord Russell she had three children, all of whom she educated, and who gave evident proofs, in maturer years, of the judicious and excellent management of their instructress.

Virtue, tenderness, piety, and an undeviating affection to her relations, were the prominent traits in her character. She possessed a mind equal to the sufferings she endured.

When lady Russell was called to the heart-rending, but, to a mind like hers, insupportable trial of her beloved lord, she acted with firmness and decision; and though it is generally allowed, from the manner in which lord Russell was taken up, that the court would have connived at his escape, no advice was given by her contrary to that conduct, which she considered consonant ' with his honour and his innocence. She attended him with the same unshaken firmness, till within a very few hours of his lamented sufferings. During the fortnight that elapsed, between his committment to the tower and his trial, she was actively employed in procuring information as to the charges which were likely to be brought against him, and in adopting every means of precaution. Such was her wonderful knowledge on this trying occasion, that it is stated in the report of the