Mrs. Montague, her relation the Earl of Bath, and Lord Lyttleton. By the advice of these noblemen, when on a visit at Tunbridge, she was prevailed upon to form a second collection of poems. These were published in 1762 in a small volume dedicated to Lord Bath, and having an introductory copy of verses prefixed, from the pen of Lord Lyttleton.・・

These several publications rendered her easy in her circumstances. She purchased a house at Deal in -1762, which she hired to her father, with whom she continued to reside during the remainder of his life.

In 1763 she went abroad with Lord Bath and Mrs. Montague, and visited Spa, Germany, and Holland. Her letters written during this short tour, have been ⚫ published in the memoir of her life by Mr. Pennington, and form the best part of that gentleman's work.

Lord Bath died in 1764, and contrary to general expectation, the name of Mrs. Carter was not to be found in his will. Ample amends was however made for this apparent neglect by Sir William Pulteney, when he became possessed of the Earl's property in 1767; his first care was to settle upon Mrs. Carter, in the most generous and handsome manner, an annuity of £100 a year, which was afterwards increased to £150. About this time her father's circumstances were also greatly improved by the death of a brother, who bequeathed to him and bis family a considerable property.

In 1768 Mrs. Carter lost her great friend Dr. Secker, who also neglected to name her in his will. Two years after she sustained a greater loss in the death of her valuable friend Miss Talbot; the literary remains of this excellent lady were intrusted to Mrs. Carter who derived considerable benefit from their publication.

Mrs. Carter lost her father in 1774, but she continued to occupy the same residence at Deal to the end of her life, dividing her time between that town and London, where she generally passed the winter.

In 1775 her friend Mrs. Montague became a widow, immediately after which she settled an annuity upon Mrs. Carter of £100 a year; this was the last accession of property that she acquired, and with what she previously possessed, rendered her easy, and for a person of her pursuits, even opulent in her circumstances.

4

The remainder of Mrs. Carter's life was not marked by any events sufficiently important to demand our notice. She continued to improve her mind by study, enjoyed the best society in town and country, and was, as she well deserved to be, the object of universal reverence and esteem.

Mrs. Carter died in London, Februrary 19th, 1806, and was buried there, in the burial ground of Grosvenor Chapel, where a monument exists to her memory.

Should it ever again become a question whether the intellect of women be inferior to that of men, English ladies may triumphantly appeal to the illustrious name of Elizabeth Carter. She possessed an understanding of that peculiar kind which has been distinguished by the term masculine; being firm, enduring, and determined; she delighted to encounter and subdue difficulties, and selected for her walk not the soft and flowery paths of literature, but the rough and thorny road of learning. Such was the profundity of her acquirements in the dead languages, that Dr. Johnson, no inadequate judge, and one who from prejudice was at all times unwilling to render justice to her sex, allowed

that she was the best Greek scholar within the range of his extensive knowledge.-A more convincing proof is perhaps her admirable translation of one of the most difficult of the Greek classics, which displays in every part a familiarity with the language, rarely exceeded by any modern scholar. This is however, but a small portion of the praise due to our admirable countrywoman. During her painful advance over the rugged domain of classical learning, she practiced, and attained perfection in, a far more difficult study,-she acquired absolute command over her own mind; she learned to subdue her passions, and render them submissive to the dictates of prudential wisdom. She became a model both by precept and example, of every christian and moral virtue.

All illustrious characters, however, have their defects; perfection is not the lot of humanity :

Nam vitiis nemo sine nascitur. Optimus ille
Qui minimis urgetur.

Elizabeth Carter was not free from that pride which
proceeds from association with characters ennobled
rather by circumstance than by desert. She valued
herself on the trifling notices of royalty, and it is to be
feared looked with too much complacency on the long
list of her titled friends. Lord Bath, a doubtful
character, was her intimate associate, and though in a
degree, like poor Amhurst, the victim of his cold-hearted
neglect, she defended his memory, and seemed blind
to his political failings. Horace Walpole, no longer a
doubtful character, was also her friend and correspon-
dent, and she even ventured to justify and approve
his disgraceful conduct to the unfortunate Chatterton.

U

of

To the merits of Chatterton himself, and of Burns, the two most original, and, every thing considered, the greatest geniuses that appeared during the long period of her life, she was altogether a stranger; she considered them as low and profligate characters, and suffered her prejudices against the men, to influence her judgment of their works, impressed as they are with the stamp of immortality: this might however, proceed from defective taste.-Another of this excellent woman's failings was the perfect satisfaction with which she viewed the existing order of things. In her opinion every thing was perfect both in church and state, and she reprobated all attempts at innovation, though the object in contemplation might have been improvement. If all our patriots had resembled Elizabeth Carter, we should have been at this moment the victims of superstition and tyranny. All human institutions, however admirably framed at the commencement, degenerate in the progress of time; and who shall venture to say that even the British constitution in church and state, will never again demand the firm nerve of a Wickliff or a Hampden, to repair the breaches of that all devouring power.

With the exception of her translation of Epictetus, Mrs. Carter has left no proof of her extraordinary attainments for the benefit and admiration of posterity; like many other great scholars she reserved her learning for her own peculiar use; a degree of selfishness very much to be lamented, and which might lead some sceptical persons to doubt altogether, the utility or advantage of such severe studies. Four volumes of her letters, in conjunction with those of Miss Talbot and Mrs. Vesey, have been published since her death by

her nephew, the Rev. Mr. Pennington. Though by no means worthy of comparison with the unrivalled productions of her friend Mrs. Montague, these letters are excellent, and deserve a place in the library of every British lady.

It may be presumed from the slight view we have taken of the life and character of this learned and virtuous woman, that she did not possess in perfection the genuine poetic temperament. In her conduct we perceive

"No hair-brain'd sentimental traces,"

she was not of those

"Whose judgment clear

Can others teach the course to steer,
Yet run themselves life's mad career,
Wild as the wave :"

In truth she possessed only two of the minor qualities that enter into the composition of the poet's mind: she had some ear to harmony, and a memory well stored with poetic common places, the fruits of much reading, and continual study. She was a profound scholar, a learned and orthodox divine, a correct moralist, a fair critic, a decent lady philosopher,-but no poet: yet she prided herself upon her talent for verse, and in one of her letters describes her self as a poet but no philoso.. pher. She was mistaken; in the whole compass of what she has written in this department of literature, it would be difficult to find one original conception, or a single stanza which involuntarily attaches itself to the memory of the reader; a certain test of poetic merit. — Her verses are uniformly elegant, and seldom offend the ear by want of melody: they are invariably correct