Account of the Vestal Virgins. and comfortable fhade to fcreen me from the potency of Sol's burning rays. This tree, bowing down under the weight of excellent fruit, whofe grateful smell and beautiful appearance excite me to pluck and tafte, is an inftance of the goodness and kindness of Omnipotence. Methinks it tells me fo in the most elegant language, and I feem to hear it fpeak to this purpose"Learn of me, O man! how great the condefcenfion and beneficence of thy Creator is! Look on me, and contem plate with fatisfaction and delight the goodnefs of the munificent Giver, who formed me and my progeny for thy gratification and pleasure.- Regale thyfelf with my fweets; unload me of all my treasure, for it is thine, and to thee I am to give it; but let me remind thee in return, fail not to blefs the Divine Benefactor: give thanks to him for what thou receivefl, and as he has made me the minifter of thy entertainment, do not forget to become the minifter of my gratitude." Such language as this I feem to hear addreffed to me from every quarter, when I take a furvey of the riches of the orchard, the treafures of the gar den, or tafte the admirable juices of fome agreeable and delicious fruit ;and oh! may I never forget to make a proper ufe of this fweet admonition! May it always remind me of my obligations to the Univerfal Father, and that every thing I poffefs, every thing I enjoy comes from his hand !-May fuch reflections make me glow with love, awaken my gratitude, and prompt me to look up with a heart-felt joy, and adore and praise the great Author of all Good," who opens his hand, and filleth all things living with plen teousness." See fmiling nature, with her treasures fair; Confefs his bounty and parental care; Renew'd by him the faithful feafons rife, And earth with plenty all her fons supplies. Whate'er we find around may justly raife Our admiration, and command our praife; Perfection and furprising beauty fhine, And light our reason to an hand divine. A-, 519 We are highly favoured and furnifhed with every thing neceffary, every thing defirable: accommodated we are with whatever tends, not to the fupport and maintenance only, but alfo to the pleafure and comfort of life. The great and liberal Creator has alfo to please our imagination, and excite our curiofity, difplayed in a confpicuous and univerfal manner, his power and wisdom in every object which furround us but alas! Tho' all around ten thousand wonders rife, Or pleasure caft a mist before our eyes; An Account of the VESTAL VIRGINS. king of Rome, a man of great TUMA Pompilius, the fecond virtue, piety, and wildom, is confidered as author of the veftal inftitution; though there were veftals before his time, and even fo early as the fettlement of Eneas in Italy, who, we are told, placed the Palladium, an image of Pallas, fo called, which he had brought with him from Troy, in the Temple of Vefta, and committed it to the care of the virgins dedicated to the fervice of that goddefs, who from her name were called veftals. But it was Numa who gave a form to this inftitution, and regulated the miniftry and office of the order. That prince confined the number of. the vetals to four; two more were af tex terwards added by Tarquinius Prifcus, one of his fucceffors, and that number continued unaltered. Numa committed to thefe virgins the keeping of the immortal fire, and the palladium, with the care of certain fecret facrifices in the worship of the goddefs Veta. They vowed chastity during the fpace of thirty years that they attended on the fervice of the goddefs; the age of admiffion was above fix and under ten, and they were to be without any corporal blemish. The ten firft years were a kind of noviciate or probation, when they were inftructed in all the facred myfteries; the next ten were paffed in the practice of them, and the laft ten in teaching the novices. This term being expired, they were free to quit the order, to lay afide the diftinctions of it, and to marry; but very few, it is faid, made ufe of this liberty, terrified with frequent examples of the unhappy end attending those who changed their condition. incontinence, in violating the vow of chaility. In the first cafe, which was looked upon as the fign of fome great calamity to the ftate, the guilty veftal was punished as a flave, that is with fcourging covered only with a veil, fhe was whipped with rods by the pontifex maximus, or chief prieft. One of the veftals fpent the whole night by the facred fire, to prevent its extinction, and they watched thus each in turn. When the fire was out, it was to be rekindled by the rays of the fun, the manner of which is variously related. The great crime of the veftals was the violation of their vow of chastity; and this was punifhed in a manner not to be described without horror. They were buried alive. Near the Colline-Gate," fays Plutarch, there is a little vault, with a hole to go down to it; in the vault there is a bed, a lighted lamp, and a fmall quantity of provifions, confifting of a loaf, a pitcher of water, a vial of oil, and a pot of Very great privileges and marks of milk: thefe are provided for the cridiftinction were, at feveral times,minal, that religion may not be woundgranted to the veftals. They had aed by ftarving to death a perfon conright to make a will during their fa- fecrated with the moft august and father's life, and to difpofe of their for- cred ceremonies.--Strange fcruple! tunes without a truitee; for the Ro- they feared to ftarve her whom they man women were always under guar- buried alive!" dianship; they were forbid to take an oath, and in courfe of juftice their evidence was admitted upon their bare affirmation. When they appeared in public, a lictor attended them with the fafces; and if a veftal in her walks happened to meet a criminal leading to execution, he was pardoned upon her declaring that the meeting was accidental. They had a diftinguished rank and place of honour affigned them in the Circus, ard at other public fhews, and were educated and maintained at the expence of the common-wealth. But if high honours were paid to the dignity and virtue of the veftals, their faults were also punished with extreme feverity. The faults thus punifhable were either negligence of their duty in fuffering the facred fire to go out, or The offender was put into a clofe and covered litter, that her piercing fhrieks might not be heard, and carried in that manner through crouds of people actofs the Forum. At the fight of the litter, all made way for it to pafs, and followed it in awful filence, and all the marks of the deepest forrow. There could not be a more horrible fpectacle, nor a more dreadful or melancholy day for Rome, than that on which a veftal was carried to execution. When the litter was come to the place of punishment, the lictors took off the covering, and opened it; then the pontifex maximus, after fome private prayers, with hands and eyes lifted up to heaven, took out the unhap py criminal, all clofely veiled, and fet her on the ladder by which he was to de Account of the Vestal Virgins. defcend to the vault; after which he returned with the other priests, and the wretched veftal was no fooner down, but the ladder was removed, and the hole filled up with earth till the ground was even, and no fign of a grave remained, to intimate that the criminal was deemed unworthy to appear either among the dead or the living. By this terrible exccution is feen what notions the heathens themselves entertained concerning the breach of chastity, and their fear of its drawing down the curfe and vengeance of the gods upon the whole ftate, if it remained unpunished. To avoid fuch a fatal calamity, the veftals were exhorted, not only to fly with horror from every temptation to guilt, but to avoid, with the utmoft care, whatever could caft the least blemish on their reputation. Pofthumia, a veftal, having fubjected herself to unfavourable fufpicions, on account of her too great folicitude in drefs, and gaiety of manners, unbecoming the facred purity of a virgin, was called to her trial. After a long examination, fhe was pronounced innocent; but the pontifex maximus commanded her to quit thofe gay airs for the future, and to fhew in her drefs more wifdom and modefty, than elegance and taste. The 638th year of Rome gives us an example of corruption among the veftals never heard of before. In preceding times it rarely happened that a veftal violated her vow of chastity, and the day of her punishment was a day of universal mourning at Rome. But this year, of the fix veftals, three were proved criminal, two of which lofing all fenfe of fear as well as fhame, had almoft publicly abandoned themselves to diffolute practices. The mischief was begun by a Ro. man knight named Butætius Barrus, a profeffed libertine, who being tired of too cafy conquefts, fought to vary his infamous pleafures by the charm of difficulty and danger. He therefore attacked a veftal called Emilia, and when he had fucceeded in feducing VOL. X. 521 her, the contagion foon Spread, and two other veftals, Licinia and Marcia, followed the example of their com panion. Marcia, however, lefs criminal than the other two, admitted only one lover; but Emilia and Licinia, who were become great friends, (if fuch leagues which the wicked form with the wicked may be called by the name of friendship) not chufing to confine themselves to their firft gallants, each introduced her brother to her friend, and managed each other's interviews. Having once began to extend their criminal amours, they foon had occafion to obferve that their fecret took air; to engage thofe, therefore, to filence, whom they apprchended would inform against them, they made all accomplices in the guilt. This fcene of infamy, after having been long acted in fecret, was at length brought to light by a flave named Manius, whofe mafter was one of Emilia's gallants. This fellow had been employed by Licinia and her to carry on their intrigues with feveral young Romans, and had for fome time acquitted himfelf very faithfully in their infamous fervice; but being difappointed in the rewards they had promifed him, and in his expectations of liberty from his mafter, he made a full difcovery, and the guilty veftals were immediately brought to trial. The college of pontiffs, which, by the conftitution of Numa, were the proper judges of this affair, acted with great lenity, and condemned only Emilia; a favourable sentence was paffed upon Marcia and Licinia, for which the former was, probably, indebted to her having been lefs criminal, and the latter to the eloquence of the celebrated L. Craffus, her kinfman, who being then twenty-feven years of age, defended her in an oration, of which Cicero fpeaks with praife. The whole Roman people exclaimed againft the lenity of the pontiffs, on an occafion when the crime was equally evident and odious; and the tribune Sextus Peduceus having put himself at 3 X the the head of thofe who murmured ating but that your benevolent and bu the fentence, caufed an extraordinary commiffion to be voted by the people for rehearing the caufe of Marcia and Licinia; and at the head of that commiffion placed L. Caffius, who for that purpose was created prætor a fecond time, after having been conful and cenfor. He was a perfon of rigid virtue and inflexible feverity, and one who, as Cicero obferves, had rendered himself agreeable to the people, not by politenefs, and a popular behaviour, but by an aufterity of manners, which acquired him refpect. Caffius fully anfwered the expectaJon of thofe who had chofen him, for he not only condemned the two vefals, who were punifhed in the fame manner as Emilia, but also a great number of other perfons, fo that his tribunal was called the rock of the accufed. mane difpofition will prompt you to fympathife with a fellow-creature of your own fex, who is really in a very embarraffed and deplorable condition. I will endeavour to be as concife and explicit as poffible, and hope to claim your attention, and to recommend myfelf fo far to your favour, as to merit your advice, which will be ever gratefully remembered by me. "Some years ago a young gentleman paid his addreffes to me. As he affured me, in the warmest manner, that he had a great regard for me, that his views were honourable, and that if I would permit him to intereft himself in my favour, his fole ambition should be to make me happy, I did not refuse his vifits. Meeting with a favourable reception, he did not fail to renew his addreffes, and as his intentions seemed fincere and well grounded, as his affec tion appeared to be ardent, as his perfon was not disagreeable, and as his circumstances were equal, if not superior to my own, I encouraged him to proceed. Though he refides at a great diftance from the place of my abode, he conftantly vifits me two or three times a week, and never fails to declare the fincerity of his paffion in the strongRS. Grey having received two eft and molt moving terms imaginable. letters pretty nearly at the fame He is a man of great fenfe and learntime, one of them from a lady, the o-ing; he is polite and accomplished; ther from a gentleman, cannot but be of opinion that the preference fhould be given to the correfpondent of her own fex, fuppofing the nature of the cafe did not require a fpeedy publication. A. Z. however, may depend upon having his cafe confidered in a future Number. THE M MATRON. To Mrs. GREY. "Madam, and his character is unexceptionable. To be plain, indeed, he has fo far getten poffeffion of my heart, that I have promised to accompany him to the altar of Hymen, and the nuptial cere mony was to have been celebrated at the expiration of a few weeks--but it is now, by a particular incident, unfortunately fet afide.My father, prompted by avarice, has prohibited our union, by compelling me to re"Convinced of your kindnefs, com. ceive the addreffes of another gentlepaffion, and good-nature, and ftill more man, who is far more opulent than the encouraged by the monthly addreffes former, and is enabled (as he tries to of your numerous correfpondents, to perfuade me) to make a larger fettle- whom you have condefcended to givement on me, to place me in a higher your advice, I am induced to commu- fphere of life, and make me more rich nieate my own unhappy cafe, and to and more happy than I can otherwise acquaint you with the diftrefsful fitua- be. But my fentiments do not con tion in which I find myfelf, not doubt-cur with his riches cannot purchase The Matron. No. LXXV. 523 with a weight which will render me wretched for ever. To reject my first lover, a man every way agreeable to me, a man to whom I have vowed e felicity, neither can enfure it.-Befides, muft I break all my folemn vows and proteftations?-Can I be fo bafe, fo treacherous, and fo ungrateful as to renounce the man whom I love?ternal conftancy-to cast him off, who who lives for me ;-who adores me?— No, I cannot !-Heaven forbids! Never can I consent to fuch a violation ! "As to circumstances, it is indifputable that my fecond lover has the preference; but wealth is not fufficiently attractive, without other qualifications inherent in the poffeffor. has really the greateft fhare of my.efteem and affection-Nature fhudders at the idea of fuch a conduct, and Reafon forbids it. "Can you, my dear Mrs. Gre, inform me how I fhall act with uifcretion in this affair ?—You are the properest person I know to inform me, as you have long diftinguished yourself by your laudable counfels and admonitions. Your fpeedy anfwer to this requeft will be efteemed a confiderable favour, by Your fincere admirer, and Very humble fervant, HENRIETTA S--." "My father's favourite, Mr., vifits me every day, behaves to me in the most obliging manner, and does every thing to infinuate himself into my favour. He will not take a denial: he declares that his affection for me is exceffive and fincere, and that it cannot be equalled. These are the words which he addreffed to me not many hours ago "Deareft of women! give Agreeably to the request of Henrione fpark of hope! A fmile from you etta S, Mrs. Grey makes hafte to will make me bleft! Suffer me not to inform her, that the looks upon her fibe driven to despair! My regard, my tuation to be extremely critical.--It efteem, my love for you cannot be ex-muft, certainly, give her exquifite ceeded-cannot be expreffed! Do not encourage the addreffes of Mr. He cannot feel fo ardent an affection for you as I do-he is not in a fituation to render you so happy as you ought to be. For heaven's fake give him up! Liften no longer to his folicitations -But if you are fixed-if you are determined to enter into matrimonial connections with him, let me tell you I am undone for ever!-The day of your marriage with him will be fatal to me!-I muft, I fhall be compelled to rid myself of a life not to be fupported, if I am deferted by you." "Such, my dear Madam, was my new lover's addrefs to me this morning-it was delivered in a manner which evidently fhewed the difturbance of his mind, and it was accompanied with tears. I am in a very perplexed condition: I know not what to do in fo trying a fituation. To act against the strict commands of a good and indulgent father, and at the fame time to be acceffary to the death of another, will be to load my confcience pain, either to fly in the face of an in!dulgent father, or to be faithlefs to the man who, according to her defcription of him, not only merits a return of affection from her, but is absolutely entitled to it in confequence of the folemnity with which fhe vowed to be his for eve ever. There are, however, other questions to be answered-Did Henrietta's father app oce of her firft engagement?-Is the of age, and, of courfe, at liberty to difpofe of her per fon? If he had her father's fanction, whether he is of age or not, the is, I think, bound to keep her facred vow, and her father ought not to infist upon the violation of it, and attempt to force her to leave her first lover for a fecond, merely becaufe he is a richer manRiches, Henrietta very juftly observes, cannot enfure felicity. A competence with the man whom he loves (provided his character is unexceptionable) muft furely be preferable to the most extenfive influence with him for whom the cannot feel any tender fenfations, in confequence of being pre-engaged to 3 X 2 an |