ficult to extenuate, and impossible to excuse. The temper of Christina appears on all occasions to have been vindictive: educated in despotism, and accustomed to govern, she knew not how to resign with her rank the mischievous privileges which that rank had bestowed. If you fail in your duty,' said she to her secretary, whom she sent after her abdication to Stockholm, 'the power of the king of Sweden, though you should take shelter in his arms, shall not save your life!' In asserting the rights of the franchises, she thus wrote to the officers of the pope: "Believe me, those whom you have condemned to die, shall, if it please God, live some time longer. Should it happen that they die a violent death, be assured, that they die not alone." A musician had quitted her service for that of the duke of Savoy. Transported with resentment, she wrote: "He lives only for me, and if he does not sing for me, he shall not long sing for any body. It is his duty to live only in my service, and, if he does not, he shall surely repent it." Bayle was also threatened by Christina, for having said, that her letter on the revocation of the edict of Nantes was a remain of protestanism;* but, having appeased her by his apologies and submissions, she thus wrote to him: "You shall not get off so cheap as you imagine. I will enjoin you a penance; which is, that you shall henceforth take the trouble of sending me all curious books, that shall be published in Latin, Italian, Spanish, or French, on whatever subject or science, provided they are worthy of being looked into. I do not even except romances or satires: and above all, if there are any books of chemistry, I desire you will send them as soon as possible. Do not forget also to send me your journal."

Like all human characters, that of Christina appears to have been mingled. Her wit, her talents, her learning, her activity, her courage, and magnanimity, are worthy of praise. When, speaking of herself, she declares that she is 'ambitious, impetuous, haughty, disdainful, satirical, and sceptical,' we must at least give her credit for ingenuousness. Should it be allowed that her temper was restless, vindictive, and impatient of control, let it be remembered, that early seated on a throne, and accustomed to exercise authority, she was unused to

opposition and corrupted by power. Subject, like all ardent temperaments, to extremes, in her emulation of the severer virtues of one sex she lost sight of the delicacy and decorums of the other: in common discourse she was profuse of oaths, she laughed aloud, and walked with precipitate strides. I had rather,' says she, speaking on this subject, 'emancipate myself all at once, since I was not born to be a slave.' Glory was her ruling passion, which she sought alike in the possession and in the relinquishment of power: but in the pursuit of this ignis fatuus she was often seduced or misled by appearances. Virtue and heroism must be loved for their own sakes, or they will not reward their votaries: those only who obey with simplicity their dictates, without looking to what is adventitious and extrinsic, are truly great. Christina, after having relinquished the crown of Sweden, intrigued for that of Poland with a levity that degraded her. Those who withhold their praise till they meet with consistency of character must, it is to be feared, deal only in satire.

The letters to the king of Prussia, published at Amsterdam 1759, and at Geneva 1761, said to be written by Christina, are since known to be spurious.

Biographium Fæmineum-Encyclopediana, &c. &c.

LADY MARY CHUDLEIGH.

MARY, daughter of Richard Lee, esq. of Winslade, Devonshire, was born in August, 1656. She received from education no particular advantages; but a passion for books, great activity of mind, and habits of application, enabled her to make a considerable progress in literature, and to acquire distinction and celebrity. She devoted herself more particularly to poetry and the belles lettres. She married sir George Chudleigh, of Ashton, bart. to whom she bore several children.

She composed a poem to the memory of a favourite daughter, who expired in the bloom of life, entitled, "A dialogue between Lucinia and Marissa." A short time after, she gave another specimen of her poetic talents in "The Ladies' Defence; or, the Bride-woman's counsellor answered; a Poem.. In a Dialogue between Sir John Brute, Sir William Lovell, Melissa, and a Parson." This production, occasioned by an

illiberal sermon preached against the sex, has been several times republished.

The devotion of lady Chudleigh to the muses did not prevent her from cultivating the severer studies of philosophy; as was proved by the publication of some essays, in verse and prose, 1710, dedicated to the princess Sophia, electress and dowager of Brunswic. The princess acknowledged the merit of the writer by a very obliging letter, written in French. The subjects of these essays are "Knowledge, Pride, Humility, Life, Death, Fear, Grief, Riches, Self-love, Justice, Anger, Calumny, Friendship, Love, Avarice, Solitude." They are said to be written with purity and elegance, and to evince the knowledge and piety of the author, who contemned the frivolous pursuits of her sex. "The Song of The Three Children, paraphrased," was, with a collection of poems on various occasions, published in 1722, 12mo. This work went through several editions.

Lady Chudleigh, after having been confined to her chamber a considerable time with the rheumatism, died in the fiftyfifth year of her age, at Ashton, in Devonshire, December 15th, 1710. She left in manuscript two tragedies, two operas, a masque, some of Lucian's dialogues versified, Satirical Reflections on Saqualio, in imitation of a dialogue of Lucian; with several other poems, which are preserved in her family. At the end of the second volume of the duke of Wharton's poems, are five letters from lady Chudleigh, addressed to Corinna,* and to the Rev. Mr. Norris of Bemerton. Also, in a collection of poems by eminent ladies of Great Britain and Ireland, several pieces of lady Chudleigh's are preserved, which display strong powers of understanding, and a facility of versification, rather than a poetic imagination. This lady, not less distinguished for her exemplary conduct than for the powers of her mind, was an ardent advocate for, the improvement and cultivation of female talents. Her "Defence of the Ladies," in which she deprecates with some severity the usurpations of man, and contends for the intellectual rights and pri vileges of her sex, was several times reprinted. The following lines are selected as a specimen from this performance:

* Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas.

"Yours be the fame, the profit, and the praise;
We'll neither rob you of your vine nor bays:
Nor will we to dominion once aspire;
You shall be chief, and still yourselves admire.
The tyrant man may yet possess the throne,
"Tis in our minds that we would rule alone:
Those unseen empires give us leave to sway,
And to our reason private homage pay.
Our struggling passions within bounds confine,
And to our thoughts their proper task assign.
This is the use we would of knowledge make,

You quickly would the good effects partake," &c.

This lady's claims are a little too modest: light on some occasions serves but to make darkness visible. Happy is the slave who remains unconscious of his bonds!

MARGARET CLEMENT.

MARGARET CLEMENT, niece to sir Thomas Morc, was born in 1508, and educated in the family of her uncle, with his daughters, whom she emulated in learning and science. This, lady, who corresponded in Latin with Erasmus, is praised by him for good sense, and a chaste correct style. She is mentioned by Mr. More, in his life of sir Thomas, as a woman of singular acquirements and learning. She was greatly attached to her uncle, whose virtues she reverenced; she was accustomed to say, that she had sometimes committed wilful errors, from the pleasure she experienced in his mild and affectionate reproofs.

She carefully preserved the linen, stained with the blood of sir Thomas, in which he was executed, and also his shirt of hair.

In 1531, she married her tutor, Dr. John Clement: their nuptials were celebrated by Mr. John Leland, the antiquarian poet, in a Latin epithalamium. One daughter, Winefrid Clement, was the fruit of this union, a learned and ingenious woman, who married Mr. William Rastall, a man of talents and literature and an eminent lawyer.

Dr. Clement and his wife left England to avoid a religious persecution, and settled at Mechlin, in Brabant, where

Mrs. Clement died, July 6th, 1570, in the sixty-third year of her age, and was interred near the tabernacle, in the church of St. Rumbold.

Ballard's British Ladies-Biographium Fœmineum.

CLEOBULE.

CLEOBULE, OF CLEOBULINE, daughter of Cleobulus, prince. of Lindus, was celebrated among the ancients for her enigmatical sentences, or riddles, composed for the most part in Greek verse.

CLEOPATRA.

PTOLEMY AULETES, who reigned in Egypt fifty-one years before the Christian æra, bequeathed at his death the sovereignty to his eldest son and daughter, who according to the custom of the country were to be united in marriage, and reign jointly. Cleopatra, the eldest, being only seventeen years of age, was, with her brother, committed, by the will of her father to the care and tuition of the Roman senate.

Posthinus, the eunuch, with Achillas, general of the Egyptian army, and Theodotus, a rhetorician, preceptor to the prince, ambitious and aspiring men, contrived to get into their hands the young king, who, by their counsel and persuasions, raised a force for the assistance of Pompey, in the disputes which had taken place between him and Cæsar. In recompense for this service, Pompey procured a decree of the senate to vest the government of Egypt solely in the hands of the prince. But after the battle of Pharsalia, Pompey, flying for refuge to Egypt, was, by the intrigues of these very men, basely murdered.

Cæsar, after this catastrophe, coming to Alexandria, while Cleopatra, with her sister Arsinoe, were collecting in Syria troops for the recovery of their rights, the decision of the dispute between the prince and his sisters was referred to his tribunal, and advocates on both sides appointed to plead before him.