much, for the forbearance of saying more, on a subject of which I am so very fond, as that of expressing myself, Madam,

Your Ladyship's most devoted,

most obedient, and most humble servant,

RICH. STEELE,

272. TO MRS. BOVEY *.

MADAM,

JULY 21, 1714.

IT is an undisputed privilege writers are possessed of, to produce examples to the precepts

* On a splendid monument in Westminster-abbey, under that of Lord Viscount Howe, and next to Bp. Pearce, is a bust of this Lady, on a small medallion, placed between two large emblematic figures, designed by Gibbs, and thus inscribed:

"To the memory of Mrs. KATHARINA BOVEY, whose person and understanding would have become the highest rank in female life, and whose vivacity would have recommended her in the best conversation; but, by judgment, as well as inclination, she chose such a retirement as gave her great opportunities for reading and reflection, which she made use of to the wisest purposes of improvement in knowledge and religion. Upon other subjects, she ventured far out of the common way of thinking; but in religious matters, she made the Holy Scriptures, in which she was well skilled, the rule and guide of her faith and actions; esteeming it more safe to rely upon the plain Word of God, than to run into any freedoms of thought upon revealed truths. The great share of time allowed to the closet was not perceived in her œconomy; for she had always a well-ordered and well-instructed family, from the happy influence as well of her temper

and

they would enforce from the living characters of their contemporaries. You cannot, therefore, expect for ever to be doing laudable things, and for ever to escape applause *. It is in vain, you find, that you have always concealed greater excellencies than others industriously present to view; for the world will know that your beauty, though in the highest degree of dignity and sweetness, is

and conduct, as of her uniform and exemplary Christian life. It pleased God to bless her with a considerable estate, which, with a liberal hand, guided by wisdom and piety, she employed to his glory, and the good of her neighbours. Her domestic expences were managed with a decency and dignity suitable to her fortune; but with a frugality that made her income abound to all proper objects of charity, to the relief of the necessitous, the encouragement of the industrious, and the instruction of the ignorant. She distributed not only with chearfulness, but with joy; which, upon some occasions of raising and refreshing the spirit of the afflicted, she could not refrain from breaking forth into tears, flowing from a heart thoroughly affected with compassion and benevolence. Thus did many of her good works, while she lived, go up as a memorial before God; and some she left to follow her.

"She died January 21, 1726, in the 57th year of her age, at Flaxley, her seat in Gloucestershire; and was buried there, where her name will be long remembered, and where several of her benefactions at that place, as well as others, are more particularly recorded."

At the top of the monument are the family arms; and at the bottom these lines:

"This monument was erected with the utmost respect to her memory, and justice to her character, by her executrix, Mrs. MARY POPE, who lived with her near forty years in perfect friendship, and never once interrupted till her much lamented death."

*This letter was prefixed to the second volume of "The Ladies Library."

but

but a faint image of the spirit which inhabits the amiable form which Heaven has bestowed on you. It is observed, by all who know you, that, though you have an aspect and mien which draw the attention and expectation of all who converse with you, and a wit and good sense which surmount the great conceptions your person raises in your beholders, those perfections are enjoyed by you like gifts of common acceptation; that lovely and affable air expresses only the humility of a great and generous heart; and the most shining accomplishments, used by others to attract vulgar admiration, are serviceable to you only as they adorn piety and charity.

Though your person and fortune equally raise the admiration and ambition of our whole sex to move your attention to their importunities, your equal spirit entertains itself with ideas of a very different kind, and is solicitous to search for imperfections where it were the utmost injustice for any other to imagine any, and applauses only awaken you to an inquisition for errors.

It is with this turn of mind that, instead of assemblies and conversations, books and solitude have been your choice, and you have gone on in the study of what you should be, rather than attended to the celebration of what you are. Thus, with the charms of the fairest of your own sex, and knowledge not inferior to the more learned of ours, a closet, a bower, or some beauteous scene of rural nature, has constantly robbed the world of a Lady's appearance, who never was beheld but with gladness to her visitants, nor ever admired but with pain to herself.

But

But a constant distribution of large charities, a search for objects of new bounty, and a skilful choice of modest merit, or suffering virtue, touch the souls of those who partake your goodness too deeply to be borne without enquiring for, and celebrating their benefactress. I should be loth to of fend your tenderness in this particular; but I know, when I say this, the fatherless and the widow, the neglected man of merit, the wretch on the sick bed, in a word, the distressed under all forms, will from this hint learn to trace the kind hand which has so often, as from Heaven, conveyed to them what they have asked in the anguish of soul, when none could hear, but He who has blessed you with so ample a fortune, and given you a soul 'to employ it in his

service.

If much more than what is here intimated be not the plain truth, it is impossible to come at what is so, since one can find none who speak of you, who are not in love with your person, or indebted to your fortune. I wish you, as the completion of human happiness, a long continuance of being what you are; and am, Madam,

Your most obedient

and most humble servant,

RICH. STEELE.

273. TO

-273. TO MRS. STEELE.

MADAM,

JULY 21, 1714.

IF great obligations received are just motives for

addresses of this kind *, you have an unquestionable pretension to my acknowledgments, who have condescended to give me your very self. I can make no return for so inestimable a favour, but in acknowledging the generosity of the giver. To have either wealth, wit, or beauty, is generally a temptation to a woman to put an unreasonable value upon herself; but with all these, in a degree which drew upon you the addresses of men of the amplest fortunes, you bestowed your person where you could have no expectations but from the gratitude of the receiver, though you knew he could exert that gratitude in no other returns but esteem and love. For which must I first thank you? for what you have denied yourself, or for what you have bestowed on me?

have over

I owe to that for you, my sake you looked the prospect of living in pomp and plenty, and I have not been circumspect enough to preserve you from care and sorrow. I will not dwell upon this particular; you are so good a wife, that I know you think I rob you of more than I can give, when I say any thing in your favour to my own disadvantage.

* This letter was prefixed to the third volume of "The Ladies Library."

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