that she died unmarried. The austerity of her manners among her disciples, suppressed in their birth, those emotions to which her beauty gave rise, and preserved her from the insinuations of passion. A true professor of the Platonic school held wisdom and virtue only to be beautiful, and the conquest of the passions the only meritorious fortitude: that corporal symmetry and loveliness, were but a faint transcript of the divine charm of mental excellence, was their favourite principle. By the refinements of her precepts, and the severity of her behaviour, the fair academician silenced the presumptuous wishes of those among her scholars, who had not yet become adepts in the sublime doctrines of the founder of their sect.

While Hypatia thus flourished the brightest ornament of the schools, Orestes, under the emperor Theodosius, governed Alexandria, of which Cyril was bishop or patriarch. Orestes, whom his rank and education had qualified to judge of the admirable qualities of Hypatia, treated her with distinguished respect and attention; visiting her frequently, and delighting in her conversation. Cyril, who cherished against Orestes an inveterate hatred and jealousy, observed this intercourse with a malignant eye: he had been elevated to the patriarchal throne by sedition and tumult, in opposition to Timothy, an archdeacon of but little reputation: was of a turbulent, ambitious, and intolerant temper, and had, by his usurpations on the civil authority, and prying scrutiny into the actions of the governor, incurred his suspicion and dislike.

A sedition had been excited against Orestes by Hierax, a pedagogue, or schoolmaster, and implicit disciple

and partizan of Cyril, by whom he was encouraged and protected. Hierax afterwards appearing at the theatre, when the governor was present, the Jews accused him as a disturber of the public peace, and a sower of mischief. Cyril, in revenge, banished the Jews from the city, where, from the time of Alexander, they had, to the great advantage of the state, lived undisturbed in opulence and prosperity. Orestes, incensed at the temerity of Cyril, and at the injury which the city was likely to sustain, laid the affair before the emperor. Cyril, conscious of the unpopularity of his conduct, the citizens taking part with the governor, began to be alarmed, and made overtures towards a compromise and reconciliation. Orestes, aware of his character, received his advances with coldness; the enmity became more inveterate, and, in its consequences, prepared the way for a fatal catastrophe, of which Hypatia was the destined victim. Certain monks, residing in the Nitrian mountains, among which they possessed numerous monasteries, flocked to the city, where, encountering the governor in his chariot, they reviled and abused him, using in their rage, among other epithets of reproach, those of sacrificer and heathen. Orestes, not doubting to whose agency he was indebted for this public outrage, cried out that he was a Christian, and had been baptized by Atticus at Constantinople. Regardless of this attestation, the monks continued to insult him, while Ammonius, one of the most furious, hurled at him a stone, which, wounding him on the head, covered him with blood. The guards, with a few exceptions, terrified at this violence, deserted their master, lest they should share his fate, and concealed themselves in the

crowd. The citizens of Alexandria, with more loyalty and courage, rose in defence of their governor, and having seized Ammonius, put his companions to flight. The ringleader being dragged before Orestes, was, in conformity to the laws, sentenced to expire on the rack. The party of the governor, and that of the patriarch, laid before the emperor, on this occasion, their several complaints; while the latter, having received the body of Ammonius, deposited it in one of the churches, with a panegyric on his courage, and sufferings in the cause of truth; and, changing his name to Thaumasius, he or dered him to be considered as a martyr. The more moderate among the Christians, convinced that Ammonius had but suffered his deserts, justly disapproved of the zeal of their patriarch, who, Orestes having escaped his vengeance, still thirsted for a victim. The favour of Hypatia with the governor, who took a pleasure in testifying his respect for her talents, rendered her obnoxious to the rage and bigotry of his enemies, who accused her of obstructing an accommodation between the civil and ecclesiastical powers. A conspiracy, headed by Peter, a lecturer, and a furious zealot, was therefore formed against her. Laying in wait for her, they seized her on returning from a visit, dragged her from her chair, and, having hurried her to a church called Cæsar's, barbarously stripped her, and murdered her with tiles; when, tearing her body in pieces, they consumed it to ashes in a place called Cinaron. This violation of the laws of humanity, and horrible mockery of religion, was committed during the time of a solemn fast, and is attested by Socrates, Nicephorus, Suidas, Dumascius, and Hesychius, who add, that Cyril, a pre

tender to letters, and emulous of fame, was jealous of the talents and reputation of Hypatia, whose destruction he had solemnly avowed. In the life of Isidorus, by Photius, it is related, that the patriarch, passing by the residence of the female philosopher, and observing an extraordinary concourse of persons who thronged her doors, some appearing to be entering, and others coming from the house, inquired into the cause of this crowd, and was informed in reply, that this was the habitation of the philosophical Hypatia, to whom the people flocked to testify their respect. The priest, seized with a pang of envy too poignant to be concealed, from that moment meditated her destruction. The emperor,

when informed of the tragical fate of this incomparable woman, manifested great concern, and threatened the assassins with the just recompense of their crime; but, at the intreaties of his friends, whom Edesius had corrupted, was induced to suffer them to escape; by which means, it is added, he drew vengeance on himself and his family. The murder of Hypatia, whose name posterity has consecrated, was perpetrated in the fourth year of the episcopate of Cyril, (Honorius being the tenth, and Theodosius the sixth time, consuls,) during Lent, in the month of March, in the year 415.

KERALIO.

MADAME DE KERALIO, a lady who possesses a considerable share of literary reputation, is a native of Paris, in which city she was born in 1758. She has translated several works from the English, among which are "Swineburne's Travels;" "Carr's Tour," and "Dodsley's Fa

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bles." From the Italian she has given a version of Galuzzi's "History of the Grand Dutchy of Tuscany, under the Medici family." She is the author of a “History of Queen Elizabeth" in five volumes; " Amelia and Caroline," in five volumes; "Rose and Albert," three volumes; "Alphonso and Matilda," four volumes; and "Adelaide," two volumes. She has also edited a collection of the best French works, composed by "Women," fourteen volumes.

LAFITE.

MARY ELIZABETH DE LAFITE, a learned French lady, was born at Paris in 1750, and died at London in the year 1794. She published "Reponses à Démêler ou Essai d'une Maniere d'éxercer l'attention;""Entretiens, Drames, et Contes Moraux, à l'usage des Enfans," two volumes, dedicated to the queen of England, and several times reprinted. She also translated into French, some of the works of Wieland, Gellert, and Lavater.

LAMBERT.

ANN THERESE LAMBERT, a literary lady of considerable talent, was born at Paris in the year 1647; she was married in her nineteenth year to Henri Lambert, Marquis de St. Bris. This union being afterwards dissolved by the death of her husband, she employed the large fortune left her, in patronizing learning and learned men, to whom her mansion was always accessible. After her decease, her own writings were collected and