his confcious foul, he met the reproachful look of his king, and the fierce glances of Rinaldo. The king embraced him in a rapture of joy and gratitude; the nobles crowded round the deliverer of their princefs, loaded him with bleflings, and frove to exceed each other in praifes of his invincible valour. Thefe congratulations over, all eyes were turned upon the unknown knight in black armour, who had fo generouf That noble warrior, repeating in a few words the treafons he had been guilty of, challenged him to the field. Polyneffo denied the accufation, but accepting the proffered combat, because he could not avoid it, retired to arm himself, while Rinaldo, fraughtly undertaken the defence of Geneura, with the pious prayers and bleffings of the king, entered the lifts, and ordered his trumpets to found. against her accufer Lurcanio: pentive he flood during the fight between Polyneffo and Rinaldo, his eyes fixed upon the combatants with eager attenti At the third blaft the duke appeared: pale terror and difmay were pic-on: he had liftened to the dying words tured in his face; his fainting heart throbbed with the confcious pangs of guilt, and horrors of impending fate; confufed, distracted, not knowing what he did, he darted forward at the fignal given to begin the fight; but his weak lance, ill guided by his trembling hand, fell harmless to the ground. of the treacherous duke, and while the multitude in loud fhouts expreffed their joy, and the king and court were paying honours to the glorious victor, he ftood apart from the throng, abforbed in thought, and wholly infenfible of the tumult around him. The king caufed him to be conducted to his prefence, and acknowledging himfelf greatly obliged to his generous intention, preffed him to let him know in what manner he could repay the Not fo the great Rinaldo, he, with calm courage, and brave, yet unaffuming confidence, meditated the wound, and rifing all collected to the blow, threw his lance with fuch en-obligation. erring fkill and force, that it pierced The knight made no answer, but quite through the armour of Polyneffo, bowing low, and throwing off his heland hid its fatal point within his fide. met, the king and court, with the utThe traitor fell: Rinaldo eagerly most aftonishment beheld the lovely difmounted, and approaching him, un-face of Ariodant; wonder and joy kept laced his helment. With faint voice he called for mercy, and thinking to deferve it, confeffed, unafked, the wrong he had been guilty of to Geneure; then, as if life had been only lent him till he had cleared her innocence, fcarce had he uttered another prayer for mercy, but death fuppreffed the coward fupplication, and he lay a breathless corfe at the feet of Rinaldo. The people tranfported with joy that their princess was not only delivered from death, but restored to her former fanctity of character, made the air refound with their acclamations. them all filent for a while: at length the king recovering from his furprise clafped the young warrior to his breast with a tender embrace. "Is it poffible," faid he, in a tone of voice, expreffive of the ftrengeft tranfport, " that I behold again my Ariodant, the gallant defender of my dominions, and the brave champion for my daughter's honour! Him whom I lamented as dead, whom my whole kingdom mourned for: tell me by what flrange yet happy chance I now behold thee living, whofe death was fo confidently affirmed, and fo univerfally believed!" Ariodant, knowing the king was acquainted with the whole fory of his love, replied without referve. Rinaldo, being conducted to the king, untied the beaver of his helment, and was immediately known to be the famous knight of Italy, whofe noble "The peafant, my lord, whom I exploits were noifed over all the habit-detained to be a witnefs of my despair, able world. and to bring the news of it to the Hiftory of Hypafia. 147 a combat, which muft have ended in the death of one brother, and eternal remorfe to the other. princefs, informed her truly that I caft | happily prevented the continuance of myfelf from the rock into the fea; but that natural repugnance we have all to death, when near, however we may despise its terrors at a distance, impelled me, involuntarily, to ufe meafures to preferve a life which a moment before I had been fo defirous of lofing. "With joy I beheld the princess delivered from the ignominious death with which he was threatened; but oh! with far more rapture do I congratulate your majelly, on this difcovery of her innocence. Happy Rinaldo, to be at once the defender of her and restorer of her honour. As for me, I fought only to preferve her from death; and if that was denied me, to have the fatisfaction, at least, of dying in her defence, by the hand of a friend and brother." "As foon as I rofe again upon the furface of the waves, I applied myfelf to fwimming, at which I was very expert, and foon reached the neigh-life, bouring fhore: faint, weary and almost breathlefs, I threw my felf down amidst the rufhes, and was found in this condition by an ancient hermit, whose cell was at a small distance. "Thither he conducted me, and in a few days his charitable cares restored me to my ftrength: but, alas! my mind was tortured ftill with various paf. fions; love, hatred, defpair, and eager thirst of vengeance, by turns poffeffed me; in vain I fought to banish the idea of Geneura from my foul, it ftill returned with double force; nor could her infidelity, of which, mistaken wretch that I was, I thought I had fuch convincing proofs, weaken the power of her refiftless charms. "Thus languishing with a cureless wound, I heard the news of her accufation by my brother, and the danger to which her life and honour were expofed; at that monent, forgetting the injuries I had fuffered, infenfible to all the ties of confanguinity and friendship, and only folicitous for her fafety, I determined to fight with my brother, in her defence, pleafing myfelf with the thought, that if I did not free her, I fhould at least have the fatisfaction of dying in her caufe, and thereby proving how much fuperior to Polyneffo was my love, whom, tho' favoured as he was by her, he wanted courage to defend. The king, who loved him before for his virtues, was fo charmed with this generous proof of his paffion for his daughter, that he eafily yielded to the folicitations of Rinaldo and the noblemen of his court, to bestow the princefs on fo faithful a lover; and endowing her with the duchy of Albania, which on Peiyneffo's death, reverted to the crown, he gave her hand to Ariodant, in the prefence of the whole court, and the nuptials were soon after celebrated with the utmoft magnificence. Rinaldo, having obtained Dalinda's pardon, who retired into a monaftery, took leave of the king and happy lovers, and purfued his voyage to England. The HISTORY of HYPASIA. MAN AN, when fecluded from fociety, is not a more folitary being than the woman who leaves the duties of her own fex to invade the privileges of ours. She feems, in fuch circumftances, like one in banishment; fhe appears like a neutral being between the fexes; and though the may have the admiration of both, she finds true happiness from neither. Having provided myfelf with armour that might effectually conceal me, I came hither full of fury againft my brother, whom I could not but Of all the ladies of antiquity, I have confider as my worst enemy, fince he read of none who was ever more juftwas the acculer of the fill adored ly celebrated than the beautiful HyGeneura. pafia, the dashter of Leon the phi"The arrival of the brave Rinaldo lofopher. This moft accomplished of U 2 women was born at Alexandria, in the reign of Theodofius the younger. Nature was never more lavish of its gifts than it had been to her. Endued as the was with the moft exalted underftanding, and the happieft turn to fcience, education completed what nature had begun, and made her not only the prodigy of her age, but the glory of her fex. From her father fhe learned geome try and aftronomy; the collected from the converfation and fchools of the other philofophers, for which Alexandria was at that time famous, the principles of the rest of the fciences. What cannot be conquered by natural penetration, and a paffion for study? The boundless knowledge which at that period of time was required to form the character of a philofopher, no way difcouraged her: fhe delivered herself up to the study of Ariftotle and Plato, and foon not one in all Alexandria understood fo perfectly as fhe all the dificulties of thefe two philofophers. But not their fyftems alone, but thofe of every other feet were quite familiar to her; and to this knowledge the added that of polite learning, and the art of oratory. All the learning which it was poffible for the human mind to contain, being joined to a moft enchanting eloquence, rendered this lady the wonder not only of the populace, who cafily admire, but of philofophers themfelves, who are feldom fond of admiration. The city of Alexandria was every day crowded with ftrangers, who came from all parts of Greece and Alia to fee and hear her. As for the charms of her perfon they might not probably have been mentioned had the not joined to a beauty the moft ftriking a virtue that might have repreffed the most affuming and tho' in the whole capital famed for charms, there was not one who could equal her in beauty: tho' in a city, the refort of all the men of learning then exifting in the world, there was not one who could equal her in knowledge; yet with fuch accomplishments Hypafia was the most mo deft of her fex. Her reputation for virtue was not lefs than her virtues, and that in a city divided between two factions, and vifited by the wits and the philofophers of the age: calumny never dared to fufpect her morals, or attempt her character. Both the Chriftians and heathens who have tranfmitted her hiftory and her misfortunes, have but one voice when they speak of her beauty, her knowledge, and her virtue; nay fo much harmony reigns in their accounts of this prodigy of perfection, that in fpite of the oppofition of their faith we fhould never have been able to judge of what religion Hypafia was, were we not in. formed from other circumstances that she was an heathen. Providence had taken fo much pains in forming her that we are almoft induced to complain of its not having endeavoured to make her a Chriftian; but from this complaint we are deterred by a thoufand contrary obfervations which lead us to reverence its infcrutable myfterics. This great reputation which the was fo juftly poffeffed of was at laft, however, the occafion of her ruin. The perfon who then held the patriarchate of Alexandria was equally remarkable for his violence, cruelty and pride. Conducted by an ill grounded zeal for the Christian religion, or per haps defirous of augmenting his authority in the city, he had long meditated the banishment of the Jews. A difference arifing between them and the Chriftians with refpect to fome public games, feemed to him a proper juncture for putting his ambitious defigns into execution. He found no difficulty in exciting the people, naturally difpofed to revolt. The prefect who at that time commanded the city interpofed on this occafion, and thought it just to put one of the chief creatures of the patriarch to the torture, in order to discover the firft promoter of the confpiracy. The patriarch enraged at the injustice he thought offered to his character and dignity, and piqued at the protection which was given to the Jews, fent for the chiefs of the fynagogue and enjoined them to renounce The Matron. No. LXVIII. their defigns upon pain of incurring his higheft difpleasure. The Jews, far from fearing his menaces, excited new tumults, in which feveral citizens had the misfortune to fall. The patriarch could no longer contain himfelf; at the head of a numerous body of Chriftians, he flew to the fynagogues which he demolished, and drove the Jews from a city of which they had been poffeffed fince the time of Alexander the Great. It may be eafily imagined that the prefect could not behold without pain his jurifdiction thus infulted, and the city deprived of a number of its most induftrious inhabitants. The affair was therefore brought before the emperor; the patriarch complained of the exceffes of the Jews, and the prefect of the outrages of the patriarch. At this very juncture five hundred monks of Mount Nitria imagining the life of their chief to be in danger, and that their religion was threatened in his fall, flew into the city with ungovernable rage, attacked the prefect in the streets, and not content with loading him with reproaches, wounded him in feveral places. The citizens had by this time notice 149 ing his defigns; but Hypafia was par- MATRON. By Mrs. GREY. NUMBER LXVIII. TAVING forwarded the fubfe of the fury of the monks; they there- quent epifte, agreeably to the fore affembled in a body, put the monks to flight, feized on him who had been found throwing a ftone, and delivered him to the prefect, who caufed him to be put to death without farther delay. writer's request, to my niece Penelope, I have the pleafure to inform her that fhe is quite elated with it. She has shewn it about to all her acquaintance, proud of being made of fuch confequence by a ftranger, and as it produced an anfwer from one of them, I fhall, at her earneft defire, lay them. both before the public in this paper. To Mifs PARTLET. The patriarch immediately ordered the dead body, which had been expofed to view, to be taken down, procured for it all the pomp and rites of burial, and went fo far as even to pronounce the funeral oration himfelf, in which he claffed a feditious monk among the "PERMIT me, dear Madam, by martyrs. This conduct was by no the friendly Mrs. Grey's hands, to of means generally approved off; the fer my advice. I think I can with moft moderate even among the Chrifti- propriety do it, not being married myans perceived and blamed his indifcre- felf. I intreat you to confider fetion; but he was now too far advanced riously before you enter into the marto retire. He had made feveral over- riage itate; you are not infenfible that tures towards a reconciliation with the youth and beauty are in the eyes of prefect, which not fucceeding, he bore men moft defirable objects; when they all thofe an implacable hatred whom he are gone, money, or fomething equalimagined to have any hand in traverfly advantageous, is the bait; for when they are gone, the men think they have a right to a large equivalent: they imagine they pay us a great compliment, if they fay a civil thing to us. As to merit in this degenerate age, it is not thought on; it is a trifle not to be noticed. I would wish you to take, if poffible, a review of the matrimonial ftate. Should misfortunes happen, as they frequently do, love will fly away. Think then, what may be your lot, when love is banifhed by distress; think of the affliction you may probably feel in fuch a fituation. You imagine, no doubt, that you do but pay the man you are going to marry a very proper compliment, by not requiring any thing to be fettled upon you; fuppofing that he will always love you in the most affectionate manner; but that may not be the cafe. Now, if you have a fettlement, it may maintain you both, and no honeft man would make any objection. I cannot believe, my dear Pen, that matrimony has all the charms that Fancy paints: I frequently converfe with married women, who always fay, "Would you be happy, remain fingle:" and indeed the odds are fo much against us, that I have hitherto remained unmarried; not that I would be underflood to have an antipathy to matrimony, but youth is certainly the time for it. How could you bear to be controuled, and denied any innocent amufement you fancied; to have your favourite lap-dog difcarded, or any other trifles objected to? You certainly would regret the lofs of liberty, at leaft I know I fhould, and therefore fpeak from my own feelings. But I will fay no more, though I could produce many arguments, were I inclined; but you may call me, perhaps, already : Spinfter, has railed fo many ideas in my mind, that you must pardon me for troubling you with them upon paper. I could not, I own, fupprefs my furprife, I had almost faid my indignation, in reading a diffuafive against a ftate, which the greateft part of our fex are inclined to think the most eligible one; and it is fo conducive, in general, to our well-being, so productive of felicity, that I could wish to controvert the opinions of your new correfpondent, that no difagreeable confequence may arife from them. But you, Mifs Partlet, have lived long enough in the world to know that many men enter with great reluctance into the marriage-ftate, if they are not tempted by the allurements of an immenfe fortune, or prompted by a strong defire to have an heir to inherit what they may have already in their poffeffion thefe are in general, I believe,, the chief motives which induce men to marry, and even theje motives cannot oblige fome men to confent to wear the most pleafing of all fetters. When a woman, therefore, happens to meet with a man who is willing to form an honourable alliance, why, in the name' of fortune, fhould the be fpirited up to refufe him, efpecially when we all know that we make ufe of our utmost endeavours (honeft endeavours I shall make no fcruple to call them) to decoy men into our power, and to make them afterwards grant whatever terms pleafe to impofe, that is, as your correfpondent fays, while we have youth, beauty, and fortune to allure them? Let her, therefore, my dear Mifs Partlet, who is poffeft of any of these advantages, make the most of them, and fecure herself an afylum in the arms of a man of fenfe and fenfibility; and let her not be prevailed upon to believe that marriage is not defirable: not that I would perfuade thofe infentheir kittens, or their puppies, than of addref-le, who are fonder of their parrots, the human fpecies, to enter into a state which may be totally unfuitable to them. Far be it from me also, my dear Pen, to act fo diametrically oppofite to my good Mrs. Grey's opi An ill-natured SPINSTER." To Mifs PARTLET. [In confequence of the letter addreffed to her, figned "An ill-natured SPINSTER."] """Dear Madam, "THE perufal of the letter addreffed to you from An ill-natured we |