event in Mrs. Carter's life, on many accounts. The intimacy of their friendship, the importance of their correspondence, and the exalted piety of both, made it the principal ingredient of their mutual happiness. In addition to this, it procured her the friendship of Dr. Secker, Archbishop of Canterbury, with whom Miss Talbot resided. By this means she extended her knowledge of the world, cherished her profound learning, and exercised her pious thoughts. To this event is to be traced her undertaking and completing the work by which her fame has been most known abroad, and will longest be remembered by scholars at home, her Translation of Epictetus.

The celebrated Mrs. Montague and Mrs. Carter were acquainted from their earliest years. From 1754, their correspondence was regular and uninterrupted; and Mrs. Carter's visits to Mrs. Montague, at her house in London, introduced her to an assemblage of rank and talents. In 1756, Sir George Lyttleton, afterwards Lord Lyttleton, visited Mrs. Carter at Deal; and from that time an intimacy grew up between them, which ended only with his life. About the same time she became acquainted with the celebrated William Pulteney, Earl of Bath, who delighted in her society, and regarded her intellectual powers and acquisitions with unfeigned admiration. In 1763, she accompanied Lord Bath, Mr. and Mrs. Montague, and Dr. Douglas, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury, to Spa. His Lordship died in the following summer. In August, 1768, she had an additional loss in the death of her reverend friend and patron, Archbishop Secker. Two years after this, she sustained a more severe deprivation in the loss of her bosom friend, Miss Talbot; of whom she says, " Never,, surely, was there a more perfect pattern of evangelical goodness, decorated by all the ornaments of a highly improved understanding, and recommended by a sweetness of temper, and an elegance and politeness of manners,

of a more peculiar and engaging kind, than in any other character I ever knew.'

Mrs. Carter was now indeed arrived at a time of life when every year was stealing from her some intimate friend or dear relation. In 1774, she lost her father, in his eighty-seventh year. She had passed the greater part of her life with him, and their affection had been uninterrupted. The house in which they latterly resided was bought by her. Half the year she was in the habit of passing in London; the other half was spent with her father in this house.

In 1782 an event occurred, which once more disturbed the uniformity of Mrs. Carter's life. She had been under great obligations to Sir William Pulteney, who very liberally settled on her an annuity of one hundred and fifty pounds, which it had been expected by her friends that Lord Bath would have done. She therefore complied with his wishes by accompanying his daughter to Paris, though she was now in her sixty-fifth year. She was absent only sixteen days, of which one week was spent at Paris. Mrs. Carter was not insensible to the fatigues and inconveniences of her journey, but her sense of them yielded to her friendship. At home, however, she was able to enjoy summer tours, which doubtless contributed to her health and amusement. In 1791, she had the honour, by the Queen's express desire, of being introduced to her Majesty, at Lord Cremorne's house at Chelsea. Afterwards, when the Princess of Wales occupied Lord Keith's house in the Isle of Thanet, she called on Mrs. Carter at Deal; and the Duke of Cumberland, when attending his regiment at Deal, also paid her a visit. Such was her reputation many years after she had ceased to attract public notice as an author, and when the common mass of readers scarcely knew whether such a person existed.

About nine years before her death, she experienced

an alarming illness, of which she never recovered the effects in bodily strength, but the faculties of her mind remained unimpaired. In the summer of 1805, her weakness evidently increased. As the winter approached, and the time of her annual journey to London, which she never omitted, drew near, her strength and spirits seemed to revive. On the 23d of December, she left Deal for the last time, having six days before completed her eighty-eighth year, and on the 24th, arrived at her old lodgings in Clarges Street. For some days she seemed better, and visited several of her old friends; but, on January 4th, she exhibited symptoms of alarming weakness, after which all her strength gradually ebbed away, till on February 19, 1806, she expired without a struggle or groan. She lies interred in the burial-ground of Grosvenor Chapel. A mural monument was afterwards erected to her memory in the chapel of the town of Deal.

The portrait of Mrs. Carter in her old age, which her nephew and biographer, the Rev. Montague Pennington, has taken, is very captivating. The wisdom of age without its coldness; the cool head with the affectionate heart; a sobriety which chastened conversation without destroying it; a cheerfulness which enlivened piety without wounding it; a steady effort to maintain a conscience void of offence, and to let religion suffer nothing in her exhibition of it to the world; such were the qualities with which she came, as a shock of ripe corn, to the heavenly harvest.

Mrs. Carter's religion was displayed, not only in the humility with which she received, and the faithfulness with which she avowed, the doctrines of the Bible, but in the sincerity with which she followed out those principles to their practical consequences, and lived as she believed. We find her, in one place, charging upon her friend Mrs. Montague, the neces

sity of enlisting her fine talents in the cause of religion, instead of wasting them upon literary vanities. In another, we find her exposing the pretensions of that religion which does not follow men into the circle in which they live; and questioning, whether piety can at once be seated in the heart, and yet seldom force its way to the lips. We see her scrupulously intent on turning the conversation of dinner tables into such channels as might at least benefit the servants in attendance. This delicacy of moral sentiment, which feels a stain in religion like a wound, which deems nothing trifling that has to do with the soul, which sets God at our right hand, not only in the temple, but in the drawing-room, is doubtless an indication of a heart visited by God and consecrated to his service. Among her studies, there was one which she never neglected; one which was always dear to her, from her earliest infancy to the latest period of her life, and in which she made a continual improvement. Her acquaintance with the Bible, some part of which she never failed to read every day, was as complete, as her belief in it was sincere. And no person ever endeavoured more sincerely, and few with greater success, to regulate the whole of their conduct by that unerring guide. Her piety, unvarying and fervent, though not enthusiastic, was at all times the most distinguishing feature of her character. It was indeed the piety of the Gospel, which showed itself by a calm, rational, and constant devotion, and the most unwearied attention to acquire the temper, and practise the duties of a Christian life. She never thanked God, like the proud Pharisee, that she was not like others; but rather, like the publican, besought him to be merciful to her a sinner.

The following extracts from her writings will furnish a satisfactory illustration of Mrs. Carter's religious character.

Written by Mrs. Carter on making her Will.

"In the solemn act of making one's last will, something ought surely to be added to the mere form of law. Upon this occasion, which is a kind of taking leave of the world, I acknowledge with gratitude and thanksgiving, how much I owe to the Divine goodness for a life distinguished by innumerable and unmerited blessings.

"Next to God, the supreme and original Author of all happiness, I desire to express my thankfulness to those whom he has made the instruments of conveying his benefits to me. Most particularly I am indebted to my father for his kindness and indulgence to me in every instance, and especially in the uncommon care and pains he has taken in my education, which has been the source of such a variety of reasonable pleasures, as well as of very great advantages in my conversation with the world. I likewise very heartily thank my mother*, my brothers and sisters, for all the instances of kindness and affection by which they have contributed to the comfort of my life. If, in this disposition of my affairs, I appear to have made any distinction, I entreat them to believe, that not any difference in my own good-will to them, but a regard to their different circumstances, has been the real motive. of it.

"Besides my own family, there are very many others to whom I have been obliged for very considerable advantages, in the assistance and pleasures of friendship: of these, I retain a most affectionate and grateful memory, and desire all my intimate friends to consider themselves as included in my sincere acknowledgments.

"And now, O gracious God, whether it be thy will to remove me speedily from the world, or to

Her mother-in-law was then living.