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ters or circumftances wherein they are left, that widows may be divided into those who raise love, and thofe who raife compaffion.

But, not to ramble from this fubject, there are two things in which confifts chiefly the glory of a widow; the love of her deceafed husband, and the care of her children: To which may be added a third, arifing out of the former, fuch a prudent conduct as may do honour to both.

A widow poffeffed of all thefe three qualities, makes not only a virtuous but a fublime character.

There is fomething fo great and fo generous in this ftate of life, when it is accompanied with all its virtues, that it is the fubject of one of the finest among our modern tragedies in the perfon of Andromache; and had met with an univerfal and deferved applaufe, when introduced upon our English ftage by Mr. Philips.

The most memorable widow in hiftory is Queen Artemifia, who not only erected the famous Maufleum, but drank up the afhes of her dead Lord: Thereby inclofing them in a nobler monument than that which fhe had built, though defervedly esteemed one of the wonders of archi

tecture.

This laft Lady feems to have had a better title to a second husband than any I have read of, fince not one duft of her first was remaining. Our modern heroines might think a husband a very bitter draught, and would have good reason to complain, if they might not except of a fecond partner, until they had taken fuch a troublesome method of lofing the memory of the first.

I fhall add to thefe illuftrious examples out of ancient ftory, a remarkable inftance of the delicacy of our ancestors in relation to the ftate of widowhood, as I find it recorded in Cowell's Inter

preter.

preter. At Eaft and Weft Enborne, in the county of Berks, if a customary tenant die, the widow fhall have what the law calls her Free-bench, in all his copy-hold lands, dum fola & cafta fuerit; that is, while fhe lives fingle and chafte; but if fhe commit incontinency, fhe forfeits her eftate: Yet if she will come into the court riding backward upon a black ram, with his tail in her hand, and say the words following, the fteward is bound by the custom to re-admit her to her Free-bench.

Here I am,

Riding upon a black ram,

Like a whore as I am :
And far my Crincum Crancum,

Have loft my Bincum Bancum ;

And, for my tail's game,
Have done this worldly fhame;

Therefore, I pray you, Mr. Steward, let me have
my land again..

The like cuftom there is in the manor of Torre in Devonfbire, and other parts of the Weft.

It is not impoffible but I may in a little time prefent you with a regifter of Berkshire Ladies, and other western Dames, who rode publickly upon this occafion; and I hope the town will be entertained with a cavalcade of widows.

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No 615. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 3.

Qui Deorum
Muneribus fapienter uti,

Duramque callet pauperiem pati,
Pejufque letho flagitium timet:
Non ille pro caris amicis

Aut patria timidus perire.

HOR. Od. ix. 1. 4. ver. 47.

Who spend their treafure freely, as 'twas giv'n By the large bounty of indulgent heav'n; Who in a fix'd unalterable state

Smile at the doubtful tide of fate,

And scorn ali ke her friendfhip and her hate
Who poifon lefs than falfehood fear,
Loth to purchafe life fo dear;

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But kindly for their friend embrace cold death, And feal their country's love with their departing breath.

1 STEPNEY.

IT must be owned that fear is a very powerful paffion, fince it is esteemed one of the greatest of virtues to fubdue it. It being implanted in us for our prefervation, it is no wonder that it sticks clofe to us, as long as we have any thing we are willing to preferve. But as life, and all its enjoyments, would be fcarce worth the keeping, if we were under a perpetual dread of lofing them; it is the bufinefs of religion and philofophy to free us from all unneceffary anxieties, and direct our fear to its proper object.

If we confider the painfulness of this paffion, and the violent effects it produces, we fhall fee how dangerous it is to give way to it upon flight occafi

ons.

ons. Some have fightned themfelves into madnefs, others have given up their lives to thefe apprehenfions. The ftory of a man who grew gray in the fpace of one night's anxiety, is very famous.

O! nox, quam longa és, quæ facis una fenem !

A tedious night indeed, that makes a young man old.

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Thefe apprehenfions, if they proceed from a confcioufnefs of guilt, are the fad warnings of reafon; and may excite our pity, but admit of no remedy. When the hand of the Almighty is vifibly lifted against the impious, the heart of mortal man cannor withstand him. We have this paflion fublimely reprefented in the punishment of the Egyptians, tormented with the plague of darknefs, in the Apocryphal book of Wisdom, afcribed to Salomon.

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For when unrighteous men thought to opprefs the holy nation; they being fhut up in their houfes, the prifoners of darkness, and fettered with the bonds of a long night, lay there exiled from the eternal Providence. For while they fuppofed to lie hid in their fecret fins, they were fcattered under a dark veil of forgetfulness, being horribly aftonifhed and troubled with ftrange apparitions. For wickednefs, condemned by her own witnefs is very timorous, and being oppreffed with confcience, always forecafteth grievous things. For fear is nothing elfe but a betraying of the fuccours which reafon offereth.

For

the whole world fhineth with clear light, and none were hindered in their labour. Over them only was fpread a heavy night, an image • of that darknefs which fhould afterwards receive them; but yet were they unto themfelves more grievous than the darkness."

To

To fear fo juftly grounded, no remedy can be propofed; but a man (who hath no great guilt hanging upon his mind, who walks in the plain path of juftice and integrity, and yet either by natural complection, or confirmed prejudices, or neglect of serious reflection, fuffers himself to be moved by this abject and unmanly paffion) would do well to confider, That there is nothing which deferves his fear, but that beneficent Being who is his friend, his protector, his father. Were this one thought ftrongly fixed in the mind, what calamity would be dreadful? What load can infamy lay upon us when we are fure of the approbation of him who will repay the difgrace of a moment with the glory of eternity? What fharpnefs is there in pain and difeafes, when they only haften us on to pleafures that will never fade? What fting is in death, 'when we are affured that it is only the beginning of life? A man who lives fo, as not to fear to die, is inconfiftent with himself, if he delivers himself up to any incidental anxiety.

The intrepidity of a juft good man is fo nobly fet forth by Horace, that it cannot be too often repeated.

The man refolv'd and steady to his trust,
Inflexible to ill, and obftinately just,
May the rude rabble's infolence defpife,
Their fenfelefs clamours and tumultuous cries;
The tyrant's fierceness he beguiles,

And the fern brow and the harsh voice defies,
And with fuperior greatness fmiles.

Not the rough whirlwind that deforms
Adria's black gulph, and vexes it with ftorms,
The stubborn virtue of his foul can move ;
Not the red arm of angry Jove,

That flings the thunder from the fky,
And gives it rage to roar, and firength to fly.

Should

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